Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Kayec staff threatens to strike over pay

Home National Kayec staff threatens to strike over pay

Windhoek

Katutura Youth Enterprise Centre (Kayec) employees, mainly instructors and cleaners, have threatened to down tools this month if management fails to urgently address their grievances over alleged low salaries.
Workers hinted they would also down tools over the lack of teaching materials. Documents seen by New Era show gross salary schedules for Kayec staff members. The government-funded institution’s top management have hit the pay ceiling, while low-level staff are rewarded meagerly for their efforts to uplift young Namibians, who failed to make it through formal education and were left wandering the streets, adding to the already high unemployment numbers.
The documents indicate that a Kayec director earns N$72 139 a month, his deputy director nets N$34 859 per month, the human resource manager gets N$33 699 a month, while a monitoring and evaluation officer grosses N$22 632 a month.
A communication officer earns N$21 674 per month. The instructors and trainers are aggrieved and feel they do so much work and take home only N$6 322, little more the cleaners who earn N$5 528 per month.
“This is not a fair salary structure, because only the [top] individuals are benefiting from the taxpayers’ money. We, as instructors, are doing so much work. How can a trainer get almost the same salary as a cleaner?
“We reached a deadlock. We approached the Labour Court and were given the go-ahead to strike as these issues are long coming and legitimate,” remarked an instructor who refused to be named, speaking on behalf of affected staff members.
Even though they threatened to strike this month they did not give a definite date, saying they have to sort out a few issues, such as the position of those staff who are still on contract.
“Currently the institution is fully funded by the NTA (Namibia Training Authority), but this fund from NTA is only benefiting top management, while the other staff members are starving.
“There is no salary scale at Kayec. No financial reports are ever produced, and there is no transparency, and there is no equal treatment when it comes to salaries, because some trainers are getting salaries equal to the Kayec cleaners,” instructors grumbled.
They also accuse Kayec director Nelson Prada of practicing favouritism when it comes to remuneration packages. “He only favours top management, because they are working in cohoots when it comes to salaries. We also don’t have uniforms, which we were supposed to be given by February already. The students still do not have textbooks. He tells us that there is no money, but he recently appointed a consultant for finance. We can’t properly teach, because we’re understaffed while they enroll so many students. We can’t cope under these working conditions,” one instructor explained.
Contacted for comment, the Kayec director denied allegations of favouritism, but admitted that the issue of salaries is a problem. Prada said Kayec is currently engaged in salary negotiations with the Namibia National Teachers Union (Nantu).
“We’re shocked that they went to the media, because Nantu urged staff to be calm while we negotiate. Nantu said they will consult with the members, so we’re still waiting on this process of salary negotiations. We’re surprised that people are taking confidential information to the public,” he said.
He, however, admitted hiring a consultant, saying they could not find a suitable candidate to fill the position of finance manager. “Our finance manager resigned. We conducted a recruitment process, but unfortunately we could not get someone and we needed a person to help us with auditing. So we got a consultant to help us with bookkeeping,” he noted.
On teaching materials, he said the books were ordered from the NTA a long time ago, but have not been delivered despite the first intake, which started last month. The institution paid for the uniforms of staff members, but they are still waiting on the embroidery company – which he declined to  name – to deliver the uniforms.
Nantu secretary general Basilius Haingura was not available for comment by the time of going to press. Kayec is a non-profit organisation founded in 1995 with the aim of building the skills base of the youth and empowering Namibian children to be their best, regardless of circumstances.