Road builders call off strike; sweeter deal offered

WORKERS of Namibian Roads Company at Rosh Pinah yesterday ended a seven-day strike after accepting a company offer to resolve a long-standing dispute.

The workers until yesterday defied a High Court order given on Monday to stop striking. The road builders – 169 of them – downed tools last Thursday, protesting over the non-payment of transport, food, accommodation and living-away allowances.Namibian Roads Company offered workers two payments of N$1 035.50, payable on November 18 and upon termination of the contract in April 2006.The union earlier said only 111 workers were involved.However, that number did not include an additional 58 workers whose addresses were outside of Rosh Pinah.Workers leaving the company before termination of the contract would forfeit the final payment.In exchange, the company demanded that all workers report for duty by Monday at 07h00, or face dismissal.The Karas Regional Organiser of the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (Manwu), Raymond Koopman, yesterday confirmed the signing of an amended agreement to resolve the dispute.The Roads Authority (RA) awarded the Namibian Roads Company a tender to upgrade 119 kilometres of gravel road between Rosh Pinah and Grens in December 2003.Completion of the road, financed by the Arab Bank for Economic Development at a cost of N$ 228 million, is expected in March 2006.Namibian Roads Company Director J.A Armstrong said he is not at liberty to comment on the new agreement without the RA’s written approval.”We are contracted to RA and can’t make a statement without their permission, therefore talk to them first to give us the go-ahead,” he said.The Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer, Erastus Iikela, refused to comment on the new agreement.However, he said that Amstrong had acted “unethically and unprofessionally by using the media as a conveyor belt.The road builders – 169 of them – downed tools last Thursday, protesting over the non-payment of transport, food, accommodation and living-away allowances.Namibian Roads Company offered workers two payments of N$1 035.50, payable on November 18 and upon termination of the contract in April 2006.The union earlier said only 111 workers were involved.However, that number did not include an additional 58 workers whose addresses were outside of Rosh Pinah.Workers leaving the company before termination of the contract would forfeit the final payment.In exchange, the company demanded that all workers report for duty by Monday at 07h00, or face dismissal.The Karas Regional Organiser of the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (Manwu), Raymond Koopman, yesterday confirmed the signing of an amended agreement to resolve the dispute.The Roads Authority (RA) awarded the Namibian Roads Company a tender to upgrade 119 kilometres of gravel road between Rosh Pinah and Grens in December 2003.Completion of the road, financed by the Arab Bank for Economic Development at a cost of N$ 228 million, is expected in March 2006.Namibian Roads Company Director J.A Armstrong said he is not at liberty to comment on the new agreement without the RA’s written approval.”We are contracted to RA and can’t make a statement without their permission, therefore talk to them first to give us the go-ahead,” he said.The Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer, Erastus Iikela, refused to comment on the new agreement.However, he said that Amstrong had acted “unethically and unprofessionally by using the media as a conveyor belt.