Namibia works towards eliminating workplace violence

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Namibia (FES)and the Metal Allied and Namibian Workers Union (Manwu) jointly hosted a two-day discussion on the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work in Windhoek last week.

The discussions aimed at creating an action plan towards zero tolerance for violence and harassment in the workplace, read a FES media statement on Monday.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 190 is the first international agreement to recognise the right of everyone to work free from violence and harassment.

According to the statement, to make a meaningful impact and intensify efforts towards implementing the convention, an action plan was developed to incorporate Convention 190 into educational and training programmes for the shop stewards to implement.

The general secretary of Manwu, Justina Jonas, in her statement confirmed they were the first union to domesticate Convention 190. The convention was adopted in 2019 by the ILO International Labour Conference and came into force in 2021.

“It is also essential for employers to adopt a mission statement through which they announce their commitments to fight and protect the rights of workers at events that they are organising,” the statement reads.

At the discussion, Manwu shop stewards said they had made efforts to implement Convention 190 by addressing and resolving labour disputes involving violence and harassment at workplaces.

These discussions were a follow-up on the recommendations of discussions held last year and aimed to develop an action plan towards eliminating violence and harassment in the workplace.

The project manager of FES, Sylvia Mundjindi, said follow-up discussions were necessary to assess the progress on the implementation of the convention.