WINDHOEK – The Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN) succeeded in its urgent application in the High Court yesterday when the court ruled that the Ministry of Education, as well as the Public Service Commission (PSC) should stop deducting money from the salaries of teachers who participated in last year’s illegal strike. The teachers downed tools and were absent without official leave from their classrooms.
The ruling, in which Judge Maphios Cheda reserved his reasons until a later stage, effectively stops government from deducting money, or issuing warning letters, while the teachers and government are still locked in a dispute over the legality of the strike. Cheda also ordered that government pay back monies already deducted from teachers, as well as reverse warning letters issued to teachers while the dispute is in progress.
Teachers embarked on a strike between October and November last year, which the Ministry of Education only managed to end following a court interdict that declared the strike illegal. A case between the parties has already been lodged with the Labour Commissioner’s Office for arbitration and concilliation. TUN and the Namibia National Teachers Union (Nantu) have also been locked in a dispute over which union has the majority members, and should therefore be the sole representative union of teachers in the country. Nantu has represented the majority of teachers in the country in the past as their exclusive bargaining agent, but TUN has been growing steadily over the years as a teachers’s union unaffiliated to the ruling party.
Lawyers for TUN, led by Advocate Steve Rukoro, argue that the deductions and the issuance of warning letters by the Public Service Commission, while a dispute is in progress, is in fact illegal. They further argue that teachers’ rights have been violated by the abrupt and ruthless deductions [decided upon] unilaterally, while a dispute is declared, and urged the court to compel the ministry and the Public Service Commission to comply with the Labour Act’s provisions when a dispute has been declared.
Yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, claimed ignorance over the latest development. “That is news to me. I have no idea. We have not recieved aything from our lawyers,” Ilukena said when approached for comment on the next step the ministry intends to take. Government laywers, led by Advocate Tinashe Chibwana from the Attorney General’s Office, tried to convince the court that TUN has no legal standing to appear before court as the representative of teachers, because it is not the union recognised as representing teachers in labour matters by the government. Chibwana also argued that the provisions of the Act which TUN is relying upon are irrelevant since the strike was, in the first place, illegal. However, Judge Cheda dismissed that argument.
TUN brought an urgent application last week Thursday to compel the government to desist from what the union regards as illegal deductions from teachers’ salaries, as well as issuing final written warnings which have absolutely no basis in law. The Ministry of Education is the first respondent in the matter, while the Public Service Commission (PSC) is the second respondent.
TUN president, Mahongora Kavihuha, yesterday told New Era that monies have been deducted from teachers in 13 regions, with the exception of the Khomas Region. “As law-abiding citizens believing in the rule of law it has long been our considered opinion that if government at any stage believed they had a reason to issue warnings and/or to make deductions from the remuneration of teachers, they had to comply with the statutory provisions and adhere to the principle of natural justice,” he said.
By Roland Routh and Albertina Nakale