NHE retrenchment end up in court

THE drawn-out battle between the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and a group of former workers that it retrenched last year will be settled in court.

After almost nine months of failed negotiations between the parastatal and its former employees, the parties will on Monday meet for the first time in the Windhoek Labour Court. The former employees claim that they were unfairly dismissed, while the company maintains that their retrenchment was the inevitable result of a restructuring process.Besides the workers’ disputing the merits of the company’s explanation, negotiations have also been held up by the parties’ failure to reach an agreement on retrenchment packages.Several failed meetings have been held in recent months between the former workers, the NHE, the Namibia Financial Institutions’ Unions (Nafinu) and the National Union for Namibian Workers (NUNW).At several points during these meetings it seemed that the matter was inches away from being settled.However, the workers’ refusal to budge from their initial demands, and the company’s strategy of sending delegates to these meetings without granting them full mandate, served to frustrate both parties and set the stage for the now legal showdown.The final step before legal action could be taken was completed yesterday when a Rule 6 meeting between representatives of the company and the 10 former managers who are insisting on being reinstated ended without a consensus.According to the Labour Act, a Rule 6 meeting held in the presence of a representative of the Labour Commission is the last resort to reach an amicable solution between the parties, or to at least try and limit the points of dispute between them.Failing an agreement at this stage, the floor is open for legal action to be taken by either group.In a short interview with The Namibian after the closed-door session, legal practitioner Coline Bazuin from Metcalfe Legal Practitioners, who represented the former managers, confirmed that the case is now set to go to court.She said the NHE had, instead of representing itself at yesterday’s meeting, sent a consultant who, as had happened in the past, didn’t have the mandate to make any decision on its behalf.This consultant, Deon Gerber, left them with a simple message, she said.”The company welcomes the opportunity to have this matter placed before a competent court to make a decision once and for all,” Gerber was quoted as having told workers.Bazuin added that, besides the former managers who were part of yesterday’s meeting, plans were under way to have the other 19 former workers joined to the pending court case.The latter group’s demands that the company settle their housing bonds completely, as well as pay them two-and-a-half-weeks’ severance pay for every year worked, have featured prominently in the disputes, as the company has been reluctant to agree to this.According to some of the workers spoken to, NHE CEO Vincent Hailulu had recently agreed to these demands, but the company apparently wanted to pay this money over to Nafinu.The workers rejected this offer, foreseeing that Nafinu would be held responsible for tax deductions from the total amount.The workers also charge that the company, when it decided whom to retrench, omitted some of their qualifications from its communique to the union.Both Hailulu and NHE spokesperson Aune Shipanga were said to be in meetings throughout the day yesterday, and could not be reached for comment.The former employees claim that they were unfairly dismissed, while the company maintains that their retrenchment was the inevitable result of a restructuring process.Besides the workers’ disputing the merits of the company’s explanation, negotiations have also been held up by the parties’ failure to reach an agreement on retrenchment packages.Several failed meetings have been held in recent months between the former workers, the NHE, the Namibia Financial Institutions’ Unions (Nafinu) and the National Union for Namibian Workers (NUNW).At several points during these meetings it seemed that the matter was inches away from being settled.However, the workers’ refusal to budge from their initial demands, and the company’s strategy of sending delegates to these meetings without granting them full mandate, served to frustrate both parties and set the stage for the now legal showdown.The final step before legal action could be taken was completed yesterday when a Rule 6 meeting between representatives of the company and the 10 former managers who are insisting on being reinstated ended without a consensus.According to the Labour Act, a Rule 6 meeting held in the presence of a representative of the Labour Commission is the last resort to reach an amicable solution between the parties, or to at least try and limit the points of dispute between them.Failing an agreement at this stage, the floor is open for legal action to be taken by either group.In a short interview with The Namibian after the closed-door session, legal practitioner Coline Bazuin from Metcalfe Legal Practitioners, who represented the former managers, confirmed that the case is now set to go to court.She said the NHE had, instead of representing itself at yesterday’s meeting, sent a consultant who, as had happened in the past, didn’t have the mandate to make any decision on its behalf.This consultant, Deon Gerber, left them with a simple message, she said.”The company welcomes the opportunity to have this matter placed before a competent court to make a decision once and for all,” Gerber was quoted as having told workers.Bazuin added that, besides the former managers who were part of yesterday’s meeting, plans were under way to have the other 19 former workers joined to the pending court case.The latter group’s demands that the company settle their housing bonds completely, as well as pay them two-and-a-half-weeks’ severance pay for every year worked, have featured prominently in the disputes, as the company has been reluctant to agree to this.According to some of the workers spoken to, NHE CEO Vincent Hailulu had recently agreed to these demands, but the company apparently wanted to pay this money over to Nafinu.The workers rejected this offer, foreseeing that Nafinu would be held responsible for tax deductions from the total amount.The workers also charge that the company, when it decided whom to retrench, omitted some of their qualifications from its communique to the union.Both Hailulu and NHE spokesperson Aune Shipanga were said to be in meetings throughout the day yesterday, and could not be reached for comment.