Ester Mbathera
The directors of the subsidiaries of the Icelandic fishing company Samherji in Namibia have rejected demands from former crew members of the MV Heinaste for unpaid wages and severance packages.
This is according to the latest annual report from Samherji Ltd., the parent company in Iceland.
“The directors of the subsidiary are of the opinion that these claims have no basis and consider that a final settlement was made with the affected parties in 2018 and early 2019,” reads the report.
However, in 2019, 23 former fishermen, who worked on the Heinaste horse mackerel freezer vessel took Samherji’s Namibian subsidiary, ArcticNam Fishing, to the labour court over unfair retrenchment.
Arbitration awarded the fishermen N$1.8 million in 2021, a sum the company has yet to pay. The unpaid amount accumulates a 20% annual interest.
ArcticNam was established in 2013, with Samherji holding 49% ownership through Esja Fishing.
A consortium of Namibian fishing quota beneficiaries, including Sinco Fishing, Epango Fishing, and Yukor, owns the remaining 51%.
Lawyer Norman Tjombe, representing the fishermen, has disputed the claims made in Samherji’s annual report, stating that the workers have a valid legal basis for their claim.
“The workers obtained an arbitration award and have since registered it as a High Court order. That court order remains unpaid, so it is not correct to say that the workers’ claims have no basis,” said Tjombe.
Tjombe further argued that Samherji’s actions reflect a disregard for Namibian laws and people.
“These fugitives of justice are once again violating Namibian laws, including a court order, consistent with their attitude toward Namibia and its people,” he added.
The fishermen have since approached the High Court, requesting ArcticNam’s liquidation.
In its annual report, Samherji also addressed the Namibian government’s demand for unpaid taxes, totalling N$318 million from its subsidiaries, such as Esja Investments, Saga Seafood, and Heinaste Investments.
The company claims to have objected to the tax demands as early as 2020 and says it has not received further communication from the Namibian tax authorities.
Samherji has yet to respond to separate accusations of paying Icelandic fishermen working in Namibian waters through bank accounts in the Faroe Islands, allegedly to subvert Namibian tax laws.
According to media reports from Iceland in 2021, the company used the Faroe Islands to avoid paying tax amounting to N$43 million, in Namibia.
Documents published by Wikileaks revealed that money from Samherji’s Namibian subsidiaries, Mermaria and ArcticNam, was transferred to Tindholmur, a Samherji subsidiary in the Faroe Islands, between 2016 and 2017.
By the time this article was published, NamRA had not responded to questions sent to them.
The Windhoek Observer wanted to know whether Samhejri’s claims were true and why NamRA never followed up.
