Labour expert slams wage violations at Karasburg

Labour expert Herbert Jauch says there is no excuse for employers to delay implementing the minimum wage rate that was passed by parliament last year.

Speaking to Desert FM on Wednesday, he responded to calls from security guards at Karasburg government schools claiming they are being pressured to accept unlawful contracts amid disputes over unpaid wages and minimum wage compliance.

They say they are being threatened to sign employment contracts that are not in line with Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations’ rates.

“Since 1 January these minimum wages are a legal requirement. They were passed in parliament last year and they are binding on every employer unless the ministry has granted special permission to do otherwise. Without that permission, and the case in point at Karas is one of those who don’t have such permission, they simply have to pay,” Jauch said.

According to Jauch, their refusal to abide by the minimum wage rate is a clear violation of the provisions of the minimum wage and a clear violation of a law.

Jauch highlighted a bigger issue where workers are faced with massive unemployment, making them desperate to accept any work under any circumstance.

“They are pressured to then just accept that,” he said.

Nally Investments owner Nally Henog cites delayed payments from the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture as the reason for non-compliance with the wage rate.

To this Jaunch stated that the problem would then have to be resolved between the company and the government, but added that it cannot be trickled down to workers paying the price.

“From the government’s perspective it’s also a very poor performance to delay payment knowing that it then has a ripple effect, but unfortunately for the employer concerned, that cannot be used as an excuse not to pay workers the legal minimum wage,” Jauch said.

Spokesperson for Nally Investments’ guards, Jacobus Basson, says the group registered a labor case against the company for allegedly forcing guards to sign contracts with a fixed salary of N$2 300.

Speaking to Desert FM on Wednesday, Basson said the group had opened a court case on 7 April where they agreed to negotiate for the back pay for the security guards.

“But after that they are still violating the Namibian law. They come up again with new contracts for the security guards to sign. And if they don’t sign, they will threaten them, fire them,” he said.

According to Basson, guards are told that if they do not sign, they must go because there are “a lot of people looking for work”.

He said other guards are afraid to lose their jobs because of how small the town is and the difficulty of finding other jobs.

“So they sign, because they are afraid to lose a salary of N$2 300,” Basson said.

Basson emphasised that Nally Investments chief executive Nally Henog is unknown to the guards and has not interacted with them in two years.

“She never visited the guards in the more than two years she has been running the security contract for, between her and the ministry of education. So the challenges we are facing now are with the payments and the contracts,” he said.

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