Windhoek
Pick n Pay Namibia and the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (NAFAU) successfully signed a two-year wage and conditions of employment agreement on September 8.
The agreement is effective from July 1 to June 30, 2018 for employees in the bargaining unit (grade 1-6A).
The agreement entails a salary increment of between 6.5 percent and 10 percent (depending on grade) for the period July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017, and again from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. Other benefits include transport allowance, rental allowance, a 13th cheque, nightshift allowance of 10 percent and productivity bonus based on store performance. The parties also agreed to commit to convert Permanent Variable Time Employees (PVTE), who have been employed for longer than two years to a permanent fulltime basis, provided the recruitment process is followed and recruitment criteria have been met.
The parties further agreed to revisit the current recognition and procedural agreement.
PnP Namibia manager of human capital Adri Erwee is happy with the outcome of negotiation process that started in June.
He says: “NAFAU is the recognised union for PnP’s bargaining unit employees, as from 2003. PnP and NAFAU have built a very good working relationship over the years and I’m very pleased with the way in which the negotiations were conducted and that an agreement was reached that will suit both the employees, as well as the company.
“It’s essential that we negotiate in good faith to honour the O&L Group purpose of ‘Creating a Future, Enhancing Life’. And although we need to pay our employees adequate wages, we also need to ensure that our company is sustainable in order to provide jobs for the future.”
About 1 230 PnP employees that fall within the bargaining unit will benefit from the agreement. Both PnP’s manager of employee relations, Shane Johr, and the acting general secretary of NAFAU, Jacob Penda, expressed delight over the outcome of the wage negotiations.