KEETMANSHOOP – Close to 60 employees of Brukarros Meat Processors marched to the offices of the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (Nafau) to protest the lock-out of 165 workers at Brukarros.
The protesting employees were locked out on Monday morning following a salary dispute. The workers are demanding a complete overhaul of the company’s payroll and a 70 percent salary hike. Brukkaros which is privately owned is located about 20 kilometres southwest of Keetmanshoop. According to the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Solomon Nemaire, the workers demand of a 77 percent is ‘unaffordable’ and will not be considered by the company. “We cannot afford that 77 percent, we have offered them what we can which is between 7 and 13 percent, but they do not want that,” he said. He was however unable to explain why workers who started with the company in 2008 were still paid a mere N$1300 per month. “Look we have inherited the company and some of these workers, and when we took over some of those workers were wrongly graded, but we have started regrading them. We have a plan. We will correct it, we told them that we will correct that in year 1 and year 2 until we have completed the re-grading. Maybe if they are paid N$1300 then there have been a few individuals who missed out,” he explained. Another acrimonious point is the fact that an employee who started working with the company in 2013 receives a salary of N$2300, despite being in the A2 salary grade, N$275 more than workers a notch higher in A3.
A2 is for entry-level employees, while A3 are skilled workers who slaughter animals and prepare meat cuts. Nemaire said the employee was wrongly graded and should infact have fallen in the A4 salary grade. He also insisted that this ‘mistake’ which according to the shop steward went unnoticed for a year was corrected in July 2013. However, according Nafau representative, Cecilia Ndjala the payroll which reflects the N$2300 salary for an A2 job was only updated this year. An employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said the employee at the centre of the dispute performs only odd jobs and has no skills. However, when the other employees questioned his salary and the fact that he is unskilled management turned a blind eye. “We want them to change our salaries so that all of us can be paid N$2000, we do not even get a staff discount and they take workers from the street who come to do the job we could have done and pay them extra money, money they could have used to adjust our salaries. The shops that just opened now (Mall) pay their workers N$2000 and we have been paid N$1300 for the past six years,” said another employee.
Meanwhile, the employees have indicated that they are open to negotiations provided their salaries are re-graded. “The salary increase is not the problem, the imbalances in salaries is what upset workers. People who have been with the company for long are paid less than those who started later. We will take the 7 percent, but then we want the salaries to be fair,” said Ndjala. The lock-out notice, according to the employees, states that no employee will be paid for the duration of the lock-out and employees can end the lock-out only by accepting the 7 percent increment the company is offering. The dispute arose in August 2013 and two meetings where held with the Office of the Labour Commissioner in October and November last year. A deadlock was reached in December leading to the lock-out that is in place.
By Jemima Beukes