Niël Terblanché
Utterances made by the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu) General Secretary Asnath Zamuee compelled Nedbank Namibia to seek legal recourse, Gernot De Klerk, the bank’s Spokesperson said.
According to de Klerk, the financial institution will now assert and reserve its rights in terms of the various statements made and published, which he said are intended to cause significant reputational harm and spread unfortunate, and even intentional, falsehoods.
“Some of these matters are currently under legal review, and given their malicious intent and false assertion of fact, will be dealt with through legal recourse,” he said.
Zamuee said in a public statement that the bank has refused to engage the union on matters pertaining to employees represented by it and that it had terminated the union’s recognition agreement.
Zamuee accused the bank of being “a terrible employer”.
“If we must rate an institution in the financial sector as the “worst employer”, it would certainly be Nedbank Namibia. In our experience of many years of dealing with workers in various institutions in the financial sector, we have never come across an institution hell-bent on playing cat and mouse games consequently banking on their workers’ rights,” she said.
Zamuee stated that Nedbank Namibia refused to recognize any trade union and equally refused to deal with Nafinu even though the majority of its staff was represented by it.
The union’s General Secretary made these accusations after the bank’s recognition agreement with Nafinu was automatically terminated because it no longer has a majority membership with respect to bargaining units.
De Klerk said that on 24 May 2023, Nafinu was informed that the stipulated automatic termination had come into effect.
He reiterated that the relationship between Nedbank Namibia and Nafinu had been guided by an interim recognition agreement signed in November 2010 and that the union was recognised as a bargaining agent for its members within a certain bargaining unit.
In the collective agreement, the union is recognised as the bargaining agent of its members within a certain bargaining unit.
According to De Klerk, Nafinu was not recognised as the exclusive bargaining agent of all employees within the bargaining unit, as provided for under section 64 of the Labour Act, Act 11 of 2007.
“In accordance with the stipulations of the interim recognition agreement, it was automatically terminated once the union no longer had majority membership in respect of the bargaining unit,” he said.
“We acknowledge that a dispute of interest has been registered by Nafinu on behalf of its members with the Office of the Labour Commissioner for conciliation. We await the commencement of the matter and will participate in the process,” he said.
De Klerk said that Nedbank Namibia has corr
esponded with Nafinu throughout the negotiation period and assured the union of its highest consideration to resolve the current impasse.
“We maintain that we have always conducted ourselves in a respectable manner and with due regard to the well-being of our employees, having offered a salary increase of 7 percent, excluding additional value and benefits, that is above the current inflation rate of 6,1 percent, which was summarily dismissed by Nafinu based on their demand of 10 percent,” De Klerk said.
