WALVIS BAY – Close to 150 employees of Gendor Fishing, a subsidiary of the Novanam group of companies, downed tools this week over a dispute related to the employment of casual workers as permanent employees, and a wage increment. The casual workers have been with the fishing company for more than five years.
Workers are also demanding that the company increase the housing allowance from the current N$210 to N$310, as well as an increase in the hourly rate by at least N$1. Speaking on behalf of the workers, Jessica Elikana told New Era that the company ignored their reasonable requests and decided to offer the employees only N$50 dollars on the housing allowance. “They, instead of giving us the N$1 as requested decided to give us only 90 cents. How are we supposed to take care of our families if the company we work for is not taking care of us? As we stand here, three containers of fish already left the premises of the company. That’s how hard we work for Gendor. We make bags of money for them, but they are not taking care of their employees. Water and electricity [rates] increase, but our salaries remain the same year in and year out. It has been almost 17 years that we are getting N$210 for housing allowance,” she fumed.
She went on to say that contract employees are losing out on benefits such as bonuses, medical aid and other incentives from the company. “For how long will they be casuals and work on contract, while they are working day in and day out at this company? Gendor must at least employ some on a permanent basis as this kind of behaviour is not permitted by the Namibian Labour Act,” she charged. Human resource officer at Gendor Daniel Lukas said the company is aware of the industrial action, but cannot comment at this stage. Gendor employs about 70 permanent employees and 100 casual employees in their Walvis Bay-based factory.
By Eveline de Klerk