Windhoek
Acting Labour Court Judge Leezhel van Wyk yesterday reserved her ruling in an urgent application by Kayec Trust – a non-governmental institution that provides vocational training to unemployed youth –- lodged against striking teachers at the institution.
The Trust wants the Labour Court to interdict the teachers from continuing with the strike currently underway and direct all employees on strike to return to work with immediate effect.
It also asked the court to order the Namibian National Teachers Union (NANTU) that is opposing the application to pay the costs of the application.
The Union and all its 32 members at Kayec Trust are cited as respondents in the matter.
They asked that the interdict serve as a court order calling upon the respondents to show cause on a date to be determined by the Registrar of the Labour Court why the interim orders should not be made final.
The issue at hand is the apparent vast difference in the salaries of the office personnel at the institution and those of the teachers.
Shop steward Donald Kuhanga told New Era that they never accepted the meagre increase the Trust offered and said they were willing to go back to the bargaining table. He said the increase the Trust offered would amount to a paltry N$250 per month without fringe benefits.
The human resources official of the trust, Johan Visagie, informed the court in an affidavit that the strike is illegal as the Union and its members did not adhere to the collective bargaining agreement between the Trust and the Union.
He said when the Union first referred a dispute to the Labour Commissioner’s Office on February 24 this year after the parties could not reach consensus in respect of salary increases, a subsequent conciliation meeting also did not yield fruit and a certificate of unresolved dispute was issued on April 26. The Union then caused a ballot to be conducted and the employees voted in favour of a strike.
The Union then gave the Trust notice on June 21 of industrial action to commence on June 23.
This, according to Advocate Steve Rukoro, instructed by ENSAfrica Namibia (Incorporated as Lorentz/Angula Inc.), who represented Kayec Trust in the application, is a clear violation of the collective bargaining agreement which states that “in the event of industrial action the party intent on the action must give the other party at least five working days’ notice”.
He further argued that after the employees were informed the strike was illegal as they failed to comply with certain statutory provisions, the workers returned to work on June 27 and the Trust was under the impression the dispute was over and the employees had accepted the offer of the Trust of a salary increase of 5.1 percent.
But, to their surprise, on June 28, the Union again gave notice of industrial action to commence on July 5, again short of the required five days, they argued.
In response, the Union, represented by Thabang Phatela on instructions from Metcalfe Attorneys, claimed they never accepted the offer and that the suspension of the strike was only to comply with the provisions of the Labour Act. Thabang argued that since the Union and the employees fully complied with the provisions of the Labour Act that deals with industrial action, the Labour Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter.
“They are at the wrong court,” he said and told the judge in no uncertain terms that according to the Act the right platform for their grievance is the Labour Commissioner.
According to Phatela his clients did not violate any law and since the Trust’s argument is that the Union and its members breached a contract between the two parties, the Labour Commissioner is the one to deal with it.
The Labour Court is there to deal with matters of law, he said, and not matters of agreement between parties.
Judge Van Wyk informed both parties that she will make her ruling today at 15h00 although reasons would follow later.