The Namibian Presidency has launched an urgent investigation into employment conditions at TotalEnergies EP after local workers alleged unfair contract terms and inadequate benefits.
The move comes after some Namibian employees recently alleged they were presented with new employment packages on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis as they transitioned from recruitment company Apos to direct employment with TotalEnergies EP Namibia.
The workers raised concerns over remuneration, pension benefits, medical aid and whether the new employment terms adequately recognised their years of service in Namibia’s emerging oil and gas industry.
TotalEnergies and Apos have rejected allegations of unfair practices, saying the new employment offers improve workers’ overall packages and that employees were given opportunities to seek clarification.
The head of the Upstream Petroleum Unit within the Namibian Presidency, Kornelia Shilunga, says the unit became aware of the concerns through media reports published on 22 July.
“Given the serious nature of these concerns, the unit has initiated an urgent investigation and is treating the matter with the utmost importance,” she says.
Shilunga says the unit would engage TotalEnergies to obtain information and a full account of the circumstances surrounding the concerns raised.
“This will enable the unit to assess the matter fairly and comprehensively before determining the appropriate course of action,” she says.
The investigation comes as the government continues to push for greater local participation in Namibia’s oil and gas sector, with the national upstream petroleum local content policy currently being developed.
Shilunga says the policy, which is expected to be implemented this year, will provide a framework to promote Namibian participation, ownership, skills development, enterprise growth and value creation.
“The policy will also support the protection of Namibian citizens in accordance with national labour laws, promote fair and secure employment conditions and address exploitative contract labour practices,” she says.
She says the government considers fair salaries, employee benefits, safe working conditions and career development opportunities as important components of local content.
“These elements are essential – not only for employee welfare but also for building a sustainable and skilled Namibian workforce,” Shilunga says.
The unit acknowledges that the absence of a dedicated local content policy currently limits the government’s enforcement powers, but says authorities continue to engage oil and gas operators on local content performance.
Operators currently submit reports on their local content activities, including the employment and development of Namibian workers, which are reviewed by the Upstream Petroleum Unit.
‘REPORT UNFAIR TREATMENT’
Shilunga encourages workers experiencing unfair treatment to report their concerns to the unit or the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations.
“All complaints received will be treated seriously and investigated appropriately,” she says.
TotalEnergies EP Namibia has previously told The Namibian that employees had until now been employed through Apos and that their conditions were determined by their agreements with the recruitment company.
The company says its direct employment offers include medical aid and pension benefits and were developed following an independent market bench-marking exercise.
Knowledge Ipinge, the founder of the Namibian Association for Offshore Oil and Gas Service Providers, commended the TotalEnergies Namibian workers “who refuse to kneel before the altar of imperialist plunder”.
“The Namibian working class in the upstream oil and gas industry should never be moulded into silent engines of foreign shareholders’ dividends while expatriates live like colonial viceroys in an independent Namibia,” he said.
Ipinge said the implementation of local content mandates must start at operators’ level where Namibian workers are victims of capitalist arithmetic.
“What we are witnessing here is the arrogance of imperialist capital which believes Namibian labour laws and government are weak and that our natural resources exist merely as extraction zones to administer them,” he said.
