At 59, some ward cleaners who have worked for the City of Windhoek (CoW) since 1993 could head into retirement next year with next to nothing to show for over three decades of service.

The majority of the city ’s contractual employees say they accepted the new employment contract offer by the municipality out of fear of victimisation or losing their jobs, New Era has learned.

The employees and their union state that they were arm-twisted into signing the agreement.

“It is a lie. Nothing has changed. We did not sign because we wanted to, but because we were scared of losing our jobs,” said Immanuel Mbenda, group spokesperson.

He added that not all of the more than 500 workers were offered and signed the five-year contracts.

Some signed two-year contracts, others one year, or three-year contracts, depending on the number of years remaining before going into retirement. 

“We are not happy. We will investigate that statement. We are not in agreement with that contract at all,” he said, referring journalists to the union.

Adding his voice to support workers’ claims, Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) deputy secretary general Mathew Ndeshikeya told New Era that the workers were made to sign the contracts without the union’s blessing.

This, he stated, was due to the fact that most employees feared losing employment, as their previous contracts ended last month.

“Due to the fear of [having] no relationship [employment contracts] with the city , the majority of the workers decided to sign the contracts this week. We are against the contents of  these contracts. In reality, there are no improvements; the conditions are still the same,” lamented Ndeshikeya.

He said the union has been fighting to have the workers employed on a permanent basis, as it is clear the City  cannot do without the cleaners.

To the union’s disappointment, the City  instead offered the workers new contracts.

“Our position was that the workers should not sign the contracts as there is a Labour Court ruling stipulating they must be employed permanently, but the workers signed out of fear. The City  of Windhoek plans to appeal the Labour Court’s decision, and only after the appeal fails will they offer the cleaners permanent employment,” he said.

Mutual feeling

This is all while Windhoek CEO Moses Matyayi claims that all parties are happy with the agreement.

At a press conference last Thursday, Windhoek mayor Queen Kamati and Matyayi responded to New Era queries about the issue of workers being put on contract work for three decades. 

Matyayi said the City  and workers are happy after they signed five-year fixed contracts, with improved salaries and benefits.

“To put it in context, we signed a fixed five-year contract yesterday with those workers. They are happy, and we are happy,” he added.

He said the city  council adopted the contract workers in 2018, initially giving them one-year contracts that have been extended until the award of the new five-year contracts.

“We took over the contractors, and desub-contracted them. We assumed responsibility for those contractors’ workers with significantly improved benefits, compared to what they used to earn before the new five-year contract,” continued Matyayi.

Some of the benefits he mentioned include improved salaries, housing and transport allowances, as well as pension cover.

Contradictions 

After the press conference, the City’s communications department issued a “clarification” statement that seemed to contradict the CEO’s earlier remarks. 

The statement said the council had, at its 24 July 2024 meeting, resolved to extend a five-year contract offer to the ward cleaners following the expiration of their previous contracts.

The council’s statement described the five-year contract as an unprecedented offer aimed at addressing the cleaners’ job security concerns.

 It also said the council remains committed to exploring sustainable options regarding the business model and conditions of employment, including remuneration and benefits.

The statement indicated that the council’s shift from one-year to five-year contracts aligns with previous efforts to improve the cleaners’ employment conditions. 

“These historical efforts have resulted in significant improvements in recent years,” the statement read.

Award

The statement noted that on 30 July 2024, the Office of the Labour Commissioner issued an order that the cleaners be considered ‘permanent employees’, starting on 2 September 2024.

As the previous contract between the workers and the city council expired on 31 July 2024, the Labour Commissioner’s directive created a timeline gap in the employer-employee relationship between 1 August 2024 and 1 September 2024, leaving the workers unprotected and vulnerable, the municipality’s statement said.

“Additionally, as accorded to parties of a dispute, both parties reserve the rights to explore and exhaust available avenues as a means to ensuring a common solution to the matter, premised on factual representations, and do not infringe on the constitutional rights of any party to the dispute,” continued the statement.

“In an effort to reassure the ward cleaners of council’s commitment to addressing the matter in good faith and within existing legal frameworks, the contracts were enriched to explicitly acknowledge the labour award, and commit to honouring a final court order upon the legal process being exhausted. 

“The above intervention yielded the intended positive outcomes, as the ward cleaners have through their representative unions indicated their willingness to enter the five-year contracts during this week of 5 August 2024, and subsequently proceeded to do so.”

-ljason@nepc.com.na

(Workers)

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