Rose-Mary Haufiku
Clover Dairy Namibia employees have expressed dissatisfaction with their management’s treatment of employees, especially with the truck drivers.
In a list of complaints sent to New Era, the workers highlighted the ill-treatment of drivers and pickers who work at the warehouse, stating that they work overtime and are not paid for it.
They claimed that they work under pressure often without an assistant driver.
“We drive long distances without an assistant driver and end up offloading the whole truck alone. Sometimes we are forced to drive throughout the night back to Windhoek, and as soon as we reach Windhoek, we are told to load the trucks again and drive back without resting,” reads the statement.
Workers also said that they are threatened with dismissal if they try to take a break. Even if it is not part of their job description, drivers are occasionally obliged to wash the trucks when they arrive at the depot, and take them in for service.
Acknowledging receipt of the letter of complaints, Clover Namibia’s general manager Christo Wepener denied the claims, saying they have evidence to the contrary.
“On the issue of driving from Friday to Sunday; that’s the job of drivers. Wamboland is far so we can’t let the truck come back on a Wednesday. It is not a nice job but unfortunately some people must do it,” he said.
He also said that they are sometimes forced to deploy security guards in the trucks, since the drivers forget to return documents as evidence of delivery.
According to Wepener, truck drivers sometimes offload the trucks on their own, but most of the time they receive assistance from the personnel at the store where they are delivering.
He told New Era that their lawyers are handling the issue and will revert as soon as he receives feedback from them. They will also then arrange a meeting with the employees.
These assertions may be the result of economic pressure on employees, since they recently demanded a salary increase.
They are, however, working on establishing a system of shifts between drivers every second week, which will result in them spending more money on the drivers, and this has financial implications.
He also said that employees cannot be fired without justification and that procedures must be followed.