Labour hire ban stays suspended

THE ban on the labour-hire system in Namibia will remain suspended while a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the ban is pending.

In a ruling given in the High Court on Friday, Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote turned down a request from Government, the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, and the President to in effect have the ban on labour hire implemented while a Supreme Court judgement on the question whether the ban is in conflict with the Constitution or not is still being awaited.The labour-hire system was prohibited through section 128 of the Labour Act of 2007. The ban was set to come into force on March 1 this year, but was suspended on February 27 through an order of the High Court because a Supreme Court appeal on the issue was pending at that stage.An appeal in which labour hire company Africa Personnel Services asked the Supreme Court to overturn a High Court judgement in which section 128 of the 2007 Labour Act was found constitutional late last year was heard on March 3.The appeal judgement has not yet been given.In his ruling on Friday, Acting Judge Heathcote commented that it appears to him that the section of the Act in question is indeed unconstitutional.It is admirable to have an object of improving people’s working conditions, he remarked. However, when the legislature in effect prohibits people who want to be involved in labour hire from earning an income to feed themselves and their families, such a provision in the law would appear not to meet the constitutional test of being rationally connected to the object the legislature wanted to achieve, he stated.He commented that he could not think of a bigger harm being caused to the public interest than if a law which appears to be unconstitutional is enforced.Acting Judge Heathcote dismissed Government’s application and ordered it to pay APS’s legal costs in the case.