NATIONAL Housing Enterprise (NHE) workers on Friday embarked on a nationwide strike for the board and management to meet their demands, as the collective bargaining process had reached a deadlock.
Some of the workers’ demands include a 7% salary increment and management to address issues of corruption in the housing enterprise.
Employees vowed to down tools until management addresses their issues.
NHE is publicly funded and mandated to provide and finance affordable housing to Namibia’s low-and middle-income earners.
“Should employees vote in favour of a strike, such actions will bring dire financial straits for the organisation. NHE is not in a position to affect any salary increment at the moment. The strike will only do more harm than good to the institution,” stated NHE spokesperson Tuafi Shafombabi earlier this month.
NHE will evoke a no-work no-pay principle during the strike in terms of section 76 (1) of the Labour Act, Act No. 11 of 2007.
Shafombabi said NHE has a contingency plan in place.
Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) – representing the workers – stated a deadlock was reached after the company failed to honour an agreement for a once-off payment of N$15 000 to the staff.
This arrangement was agreed to as part of the approved budget for 2021/22. The once-off payment originated after the union realised NHE is financially challenged to afford bonuses for their workers.
At a press briefing last week, PSUN deputy secretary general Ujama Kaahangoro confirmed the strike is legal and protected.
“The no-work-no-pay principle became traditional for employers as their biggest weapon for employees to compromise the strike, but we drafted a strategy to avert this situation,” said Kaahangoro.
New Board
Urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni on Friday announced NHE’s new board members.
The board consists of Ritta Khiba, Tjipueja Hasting (deputy chairperson), Adda Angula, board chairperson Toska Sem, Erickson Mwanyekange and Socrates Dias.
At the event, Uutoni stated government also set a national target in the fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) to develop 20 000 houses over a four-year period, which has mandated the NHE to build 5 000 houses of the target. Further, as part of the Vision 2023 strategy, he said government has tasked the NHE to build 47 622 houses by 2030.
Currently, the national housing backlog is estimated little over 300 000 housing units.
“It is no secret that 70% of this backlog is in the lowest income categories (income below N$1 500) who cannot access credit from financial institutions,” added the minister.
However, NHE has experienced slow growth over the past years in achieving its national targets in terms of housing delivery due to various challenges, such as unavailability of financial resources land tenure and property right issues, unavailability of service land, as well as insufficient communication and coordination among the role players in terms of the provision of housing units countrywide, said Uutoni.
The minister urged the new board to focus on governance, strategic direction and accountability to help the NHE strive to promote home ownership by being a customer-driven institution that provides housing solutions to alleviate the national housing need.
Delivering the acceptance remarks, Sem noted that amongst their key priority areas is to strengthen stakeholder relations with key stakeholders – most importantly local authorities – so that land acquisition efforts can be intensified.
Furthermore, he said the new board looks forward to collaborating with various industries, as housing delivery is a collective effort; hence, it should not be limited to NHE.
– mndjavera@nepc.com.na