It is quite early in the year but instances of mistreatment of workers who have taken it upon themselves to protest against dwindling pay and less-than-ideal working conditions, have dominated the headlines.
Employers know that their exploitation of employees carries no real risk for them.
This is likely why Rundu Cash and Carry this week without sufficient prior notice told almost 300 workers, who had been reinstated after protesting, that they have been transferred far away from their families and homes with seemingly little coming from the company towards their transport and new accommodation, just like that.
Many have not even been fully remunerated after having reached an earlier settlement. This also comes amid the store being exposed by workers for selling expired goods which poses serious health hazards, if true.
Rundu this week was also the epicentre of another labour-related scandal that has the stench of apartheid all over it.
The indignity of having to choose between lashes from your employer and feeding your family is something we thought was from a bygone era. Rundu service station workers had to endure that shame after a video of their humiliation went viral this week.
That it happens in an independent Namibia and that we are all aware that neither the labour unions nor government’s intervention will bring about material differences in these conditions is downright shameful, if they intervene.
Even the National Housing Enterprise workers also went on strike last week. They want better pay and claim mismanagement and even corruption in the State-owned company.
The CEO said there was no chance the company could afford the workers’ demands. If the strike lasts for a whole month, workers will return to their stations with their tails between their legs, much worse off financially, angrier at their bosses and the thought of withholding their labour firmly banished from their thoughts. The unions allowed the no-work-no-pay doctrine to become law, thereby effectively nullifying strikes as a way to make businesses behave.
But Namibia has taken significant steps to protect workers’ rights and improve working conditions. The introduction of a minimum wage in certain sectors, occupational health and safety regulations, and social security benefits are all important steps in ensuring that workers are treated fairly and with respect.
Namibia’s laws establish minimum standards for working conditions, hours of work, and rest periods and prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, and disability.
However, the country’s workers have suffered significant setbacks in recent years.
Despite these protections, however, there are still challenges facing Namibian workers.
One of the biggest challenges is the prevalence of informal employment, which makes it difficult to enforce labour laws and ensure that workers’ rights are being respected. Informal workers often work without contracts, have no job security, and are not entitled to benefits such as sick leave or overtime pay. Of course, the enforcement of many of these rules and protections are not implemented.
Another challenge is the blatant exploitation of workers with limited education who are just too grateful to land a job.
Being sick of working for years on measly contracts with no benefits, Windhoek cleaners decided to abandon their workstations and endanger their meagre income to fight for permanent employment.
The buck ultimately stops with government.
As we speak, there are two dormant funds under the Social Security Commission - National Pension Fund (NPF) and National Medical Benefit Fund (NMBF) – whose operationalisation could liberate workers from the chains of oppressors masquerading as employers.
It remains unclear why these funds are inactive, 29 years later.
The pension fund is an important buffer for Namibian workers in both the informal and formal economy and an economic stabiliser to improve the welfare of employees, while the medical aid fund will primarily benefit previously disadvantaged Namibians who don’t benefit from traditional medical aid schemes.
But our politicians have seemingly bowed to the hostility that private medical aid schemes have towards a national medical fund, as it seen as a threat to the survival of their business.
The NMBF will ultimately create a level playing field for the haves and have-nots, with the ultimate winner being the public health sector.
Workers have had enough of the exploitation.
Compared to the management and councillors who are being paid extremely well, and have been nothing but disappointing, Windhoek’s street cleaners have done a sterling job.
Unfortunately, this has left them largely frustrated and embedded in the cycle of poverty.
No worker who spends a full day’s work or over 40 hours a week working in whatever job should be on a starvation wage.
Ineffective labour unions controlled by fat cats too far removed from the realities of the average worker have allowed the labour conditions in the country to deteriorate.
No longer is the government pushed to be proactive in its approach to protecting and furthering workers’ rights.
Red tape and legal processes continue to favour wealthy employers who manipulate these very parameters to victimise and exploit workers who know that no one will save them.
All this is particularly sickening as the high unemployment rate leaves workers powerless to pursue opportunities elsewhere and allows employers to prey on people’s desperation.
Keeping workers too desperate to exercise their rights against harmful or undignified working conditions or ignorant of those rights is exactly what made trade unions necessary. To see the unions become too elite for the very workers they have now abandoned is despicable.
Unfortunately, performative activism which only aims to use people’s very real issues and life-threatening situations to gain political clout is about as harmful as the wealthy unions.
Namibia should work towards a fair and just labour system that can ensure its workers can thrive and contribute to the country’s economic wellbeing.