Onesmus Embula
WINDHOEK – Employees of the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) vowed to continue with their demonstration every second week until their demands are met.
The employees started the demonstration last Thursday at Windhoek head office, unhappy and frustrated with the current state of affairs of the organisation, giving management two weeks to address their concerns, stating that they will continue demosntrating should the company fail to do so. The workers, among others, are calling for the removal of CEO, Gisbertus Mukulu, they are also calling for the removal of the board, pleading for the equal treatment of workers by management and demanding that inconsistencies in their different salaries be fixed.
In a petition read by NAFINU general secretary, Asnath Zamuee, which they handed over to Mukulu during the demonstration last Thursday, the workers of NHE are voicing their concerns about the token of appreciation (which was a monetary reward to employees) that was removed unilaterally in 2017, with the promise that the company will implement performance bonuses but thus far has failed to do so. “The consequence of the above is that a benefit was removed unilaterally and employees are left worse off,” said Zamuee. “A job grading exercise was commissioned three years ago because of the anomaly in the remuneration structure that was detected,” reads the petition. To this end, workers are worried that “employees are employed on wrong grades/salaries and this grossly affects general staff morale across the board, despite consultants contracted for this exercise and paid handsomely by NHE.”
NHE workers representative, Rowley Upingasana, is particularly questioning the re-appointment of the ‘non-performing board’, calling for the immediate implementation of a job grading system and a performance management system, stating “if not, the token of appreciation should be re-introduced until such time the PMS is fully operational”.
Mukulu promised the workers “a favourable response within a reasonable time” pointing out that he first needed to review their demands together with management without committing himself to any date.