WINDHOEK – New Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation Erkki Nghimtina has barely set foot in his new portfolio, and already he is facing a headache after 40 placard-waving domestic workers staged a demonstration in front of ministry headquarters yesterday to demand written confirmation retracting the implementation of the minimum wage before Friday.
The workers demonstrated under the Union for Institutional and Household Employees of Namibia (UIHENI).
“[Friday] or we will strike,” said secretary general of UIHENI, Delphina Suxus.
She said their office submitted a petition to the labour office that the gazetted minimum wage of December 24, 2014 – to be implemented on April 1, 2015 – shows that no consideration was given to a living wage.
She further alleged that the minimum wage was determined without considering the economic significance of domestic workers in the country. “The contract that comes along for these workers is a mere fact of exploitation, not balancing the work in the rate of performance deliverance,” she said.
“We demand a moratorium to be placed on the implementation of the minimum wage and as a matter of urgency. We must be consulted through our union on the determination of a living wage tied to the rate of inflation.”
In a petition handed over to the ministry’s acting public relations officer Eugine Silume and the control liaison officer Nokokure Kariko,
the newly established union claimed workers have many grievances, challenge.
“Our human and labour rights are being violated and we are being deprived of empowerment opportunities in the household and institutional employment environment in the country.”
The union further recommended that trade unions must be independent and run by workers themselves as well as more arbitrators at the Labour Commissioner’s office.
They also want to see the report of the consultative meeting hosted by the team on the minimum wage done in 2012 that was led by former deputy prime minister Dr Libertina Amathila.
Suxus said the minimum wage was set without consultating the workers. “The government has passed this law to attract local and foreign investors, thereby guaranteeing them in running their enterprises. We have seen trade union structures were largely plundered by single political parties and unions themselves were often unable to negotiate on behalf of us the workers. New working conditions were announced by the political leaders and all trade union leaders can do was to applaud. Unions were neither autonomous nor democratic, let alone free.”
The minimum wage comes into effect on April 1, 2015, as it was gazetted December 24, 2014, as an official wage order by then labour minister Doreen Sioka.
The monthly minimum wage of N$1 218 per month for domestic workers would be subject to an increase equivalent to the consumer price index plus five percent as of April 1, 2016.
The wage order will be supported by the full force of the law and be enforceable in the same manner as the basic conditions of employment contained in the Labour Act of 2007, which already covers domestic workers.
About 32 600 of the total domestic workers in the country are women, while 12 000 of the country’s domestic workers are employed on farms.
A survey carried out in 2012 revealed that about 30 000 domestic workers earn less than N$1 000 and that most domestic workers on average earn N$600 per month.