Martin Endjala
Several Namdeb employees have expressed unhappiness with the company, claiming it treats them badly following demotions and voluntary separation actions.
Some of the employees, who prefer anonymity due to fear of victimisation, shared their discontentment towards the company.
The workers told the Windhoek Observer that Namdeb received royalty tax relief from the government for five years to expand the life of its mines and to recruit more employees.
The workers said they are facing demotion of certain employees and unprocedural redeployment while being used as cheap labour because they are working temporarily for three months or on fixed-term contracts for one year without any job security.
“Now they are introducing voluntary separation. The situation is only worsening, and we need to speak out and tell the public what’s going on,” said the employees.
They said the matter of accommodation between Namdeb employees, who were recently redeployed from the mines along the Orange River due to the unprocedural closure of Daberas Mine was referred to the Office of Labour Commissioner in April 2024. They were forced to sleep in tents.
The case was registered at the Office of the Labour Commissioner by 16 employees and nothing has been finalised.
“Employees are currently frustrated by the arbitrator’s manners. She is not following the regulations of conciliation and arbitration as per the Labour Act. We are assuming that she is conniving with the respondent,” said the employees.
The group stated that, per the regulations, conciliation meetings may only proceed if both parties are willing to solve their issues.
However, in this case, the company did not disclose any willingness to solve the issue while also not proposing any remedy.
The group said they had two consecutive conciliations and no promises or actions from the respondent.
They said their employees want this case to be heard in arbitration, but the arbitrator is too lenient with the company.
“The arbitrator requested both parties to submit their preliminary matters, which is apparently why she must allow the case to be heard at arbitration. The question is, which clause in the regulation of conciliation and arbitration speaks about this?“ the group asked.
The group believes that this is one of the delaying tactics being used to frustrate the affected employees.
“It is also the strategy of the respondent and arbitrator to know the applicant’s facts before the arbitration, probably to ambush the applicant during the process,” they claimed.
The group said there has been no progress in the dispute cases between the employees and Namdeb, and they are blaming the Labour Commissioner’s Office and Labour Ministry.
Questions sent to the labour ministry proved futile at the time of publication.
Namdeb’s head of corporate affairs and sustainable impact, Pauline Thomas, explained that the company operates in a continuously changing business environment.
“We have appropriate internal platforms where we engage our employees and update them on changes impacting our business. Employees are the heartbeat of Namdeb’s business and are at liberty to channel their concerns through the appropriate internal mechanisms,” she said.
On the issue of royalties, she said the royalty remission, which resulted in Namdeb announcing a 20-year Life of Mine (LoM) extension in 2021, has contributed to the retention of approximately 2 500 employees made up of 1 550 Namdeb staff and 950 contractors.
She said these employment numbers translate into continued tax benefits for Namibia and other benefits, including the positive impact on socio-economic development for the Karas region and Namibia at large.
“While Namdeb continues to deliver its business plan, the ongoing challenging global macroeconomic environment has impacted demand for diamonds in key consumer markets, which has a flow-on impact on demand for rough diamonds and rough diamond prices,” she said.
Thomas said these challenges are being felt across the wider diamond industry, and Namdeb is taking a responsible approach to supporting its business’s sustainability by continuing to monitor this challenging landscape while implementing necessary mitigating approaches.
She added that the company has an extreme focus on cost containment and cash flow preservation initiatives while continuing with the current scale of mining.
She said the accommodation issue is currently in mediation, meaning it is sub judice, and Namdeb cannot comment on it before finalisation.
She also clarified that Namdeb has no influence over external processes and any concerns around the finalization of the matter should be directed to the relevant authorities.
