THE labour ministry says there are about 100 companies representing the security and retail sectors as well as individuals who have not been complying with the minimum wage requirement stipulated in the labour law.
The spokesperson at the labour ministry, Maria Hedimbi, last week told that some households have not been paying their domestic employees at all.
She said the ministry had received about 800 labour-related complaints during the first quarter of 2018, and recovered about N$600 000 in unpaid remuneration for the disgruntled employees.
Hedimbi stated that companies which have not been complying with labour laws were discovered during “routine and reactive inspections in different sectors of the economy to determine the level of compliance”.
“There were 155 workplace inspections conducted in the security industry, and 75 in individual households. However, both sectors had almost the same level of compliance (51%),” she said, adding that non-compliance in many cases was either through “ignorance, or total unwillingness by employers to comply with the law”.
Out of the 800 complaints received, about 600 were resolved, 77 were referred to the labour commissioner, while 90 are still pending due to various reasons.
Hedimbi added that non-compliance was found in “almost” every sector of the economy, but the security industry and the retail/wholesalers were the most non-compliant industries.
The complaints received included the payment of employees below the prescribed wages, as well as people working without getting overtime pay.
She, however, did not state whether any action would be taken against the non-compliant companies.
The president of the Security Association of Namibia, Hans Miljo, on Friday told that he was not aware of any company which was not complying with labour laws, but said those found contravening the law on the minimum wage requirement would be dealt with accordingly.
He added that “the association has strict control over our members, and those found not complying with the law will lose their membership”.
The association has also been calling on the labour ministry to investigate and punish companies that are not complying with the minimum wage requirement, but nothing has been done.
According to him, the association has about 45 members, and they are all compelled to comply with the minimum wage requirement.
“We are not scrutinising them every month, but they already know that they were supposed to implement the prescribed minimum wage. If they are reported to us for violations, we deal with them accordingly, Miljo said.
