Hertta-Maria Amutenja
A labour dispute at the Sperrgebeit Diamond Mine (SDM) has taken a perplexing turn as approximately 45 retrenched workers wrongly cited a fellow employee, Bobby Mbeeli, instead of the actual employer, Sperrgebeit Diamond Mining.
The revelation came after Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) member Jennifer Van Den Heever recently posed questions to the Minister of Labor, Industrial Relations, and Employment, Uutoni Nujoma, regarding the mine’s recent retrenchments in parliament.
“During the conciliation meeting, it was revealed that the respondent, Bobby Mbeeli, mentioned in this case, serves as a Human Resource Specialist employed by Sperrgebeit Diamond Mining Company Operations, which also employed the Applicants.
As is commonly understood, labour disputes typically arise within the context of an employer-employee relationship, and this case is no different. However, it became apparent that the matter was referred against a fellow employee who is not the actual employer of the Applicants, rather than the appropriate respondent,” said Nujoma.
In July of this year, Sperrgebeit Diamond Mine, which had been in operation for around eight months, announced the retrenchment of 22 employees.
These retrenchments were in response to operational requirements and were effective from 15 July. The company’s acting Chief Executive Officer, Abraham Grobler, stated that initially, the company had considered retrenching 60 workers.
However, negotiations with the employee representative committee and an assessment of alternative solutions led to a reduction in the number of affected employees to 22.
Some of these workers were offered temporary secondments to the company’s Zimbabwe operations as an alternative to retrenchment.
Nujoma said that in light of this revelation, the Arbitrator overseeing the case advised the Workers’ Committee Member present at the conciliation meeting to submit an application to correct the citation of the party, changing it from the incorrectly cited respondent (Bobby Mbeeli) to the accurate respondent, Sperrgebeit Diamond Mining.
Alternatively, the Applicants could resubmit a new referral, correctly citing Sperrgebeit Diamond Mining as the respondent. This advice was offered because the matter had not yet reached its prescription date.
However, despite the Arbitrator’s recommendation, as of 5 October 2023, Nujoma stated that the Office of the Labour Commissioner had not received an application for the correction of the citation error.
