Zambezi senior labour inspector Richard Mushaukwa says 80% of the retailers and wholesale shop owners in the region are not paying the minimum wage of N$18 per hour to their workers.
Mushaukwa revealed this to the parliamentary standing committee on poverty eradication, labour and industrial relations on Tuesday, during a two-day oversight visit in the region to assess if the labour-related laws and programmes have been implemented.
The parliamentary standing committee’s visit aimed to engage stakeholders and identify opportunities to strengthen service delivery and labour practices.
Mushaukwa said the lack of the national minimum wage implementation by employers in the region is one of the biggest challenges they face.
He added that he has issued various compliance orders in this regard. However, they are not followed as employers claim they do not have money.
“These owners will tell you they can only comply to pay the minimum wage if they fire some of the workers, and that’s not ideal,” he said.
He added that another key issue is that employers are also not paying overtime for work done after hours, on Sundays and on public holidays, while others that pay overtime are not paying the correct rates.
“Unfair dismissals are also very high in the region. You will find that employers are not following the correct procedures when they are firing employees. They just fire them on the spot without conducting disciplinary hearings. I think this is due to a lack of awareness, as I feel both employers and employees are not knowledgeable on the labour act,” he said.
The parliamentary standing committee, chaired by Justina Jonas, also found that some Chinese shops were paying workers below the minimum wage, employing staff without contracts and failing to comply with occupational health and safety standards.
Hence, the parliamentary standing committee members immediately ordered the labour inspector to investigate the non-compliance of labour law issues and report back to the committee.
The stakeholders have made the parliamentary committee aware of issues such as private security companies failing to pay guards on time, and that the region has only one labour inspector who has only been in the role for three months and is subsequently unable to attend to the quantity of labour issues being reported.
