GIPF strike ends, pay disagreement goes to arbitration

STRIKING workers at the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) have returned to their workstations following consensus on a salary increase. However, ripples of disagreement remain over whether or not they should be paid for the days they picketed outside the building.

According to a press release issued by the GIPF, the Fund’s negotiating team and the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu) finally agreed on a salary increase of 11 per cent.
This means that all the benefits that were being negotiated – salary, pension contributions, transport allowance, and medical aid contributions – have been agreed upon.
The agreement includes an 11 per cent salary increase – one per cent down from the 12 per cent that the workers had demanded, but one per cent up from the 10 per cent that the Fund initially offered; a N$150 increase in transport allowances, as demanded by the workers; a 3 per cent increase in the pension contribution by the employer, 0.5 per cent less than the workers had demanded; and an increase in the employer’s contribution to medical aid to 70 per cent, 5 per cent less than the workers’ initial demand.
But although agreement was reached on Thursday evening, the strike continued until yesterday morning, as the two parties battled each other on the issue of payment for the days on which the workers were striking.
The GIPF, citing the ground rules of the strike laid out by the Labour Commissioner and signed by both parties, argues that the rules state ‘no work, no pay’.
The Fund says that for this reason, workers will not be paid for the days they were absent from work.
The press release continues: ‘The union however wants the GIPF to pay for the days that the striking employees were absent from work while the GIPF’s negotiation team feel that the ‘no work no pay’ was already agreed upon and that GIPF will not pay for the days that the striking employees did not work.’
But Asnath Zamuee, General Secretary of Nafinu, says GIPF also broke some of the ground rules, and therefore should pay employees for their days on strike.
One of these alleged breaches was on the issue of temporary staff performing the duties of those who were on strike.
Bringing an end to the strike but not to the ‘no work, no pay’ issue, Nafinu has ‘informed the GIPF that they will approach the Labour Commissioner to register a dispute and to go for arbitration in this regard’.
According to a GIPF press release yesterday, all employees were informed that they should report for duty before 12h00 yesterday.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Zamuee said that pending arbitration, the workers will be paid their full salaries for June, and that the seven days on which they were striking will not be deducted from their pay.
She also said that despite the ‘no work, no pay’ disagreement going to arbitration, the union was happy with the final outcome of the negotiations, given the vast improvement from where they stood when talks ended in deadlock earlier this year.
nangula@namibian.com.na