Staff Writer
Trust Holdings (Trustco), a company majority owned by its billionaire Managing Director, Quinton van Rooyen is planning to retrench over 300 employees.
Information gleaned by the Windhoek Observer shows the company has already started the process at its Morse Investment and Northern Namibia Development Company units , and has now also written to all its employees informing them of the management decision, which is being implemented as part of cost cutting measures.
“Given the current circumstances, market conditions and probability that the global economy would deteriorate even further, the decision to retrench employees in several of the operating and non-profitable divisions has been made and that process will be continued in the coming months,” Elmarie Janse van Rensburg, Trustco Group’s Group Head: Corporate Affairs said in the email to staff.
Although the initial process is currently voluntary, the Windhoek Observer is reliably informed should the offer not have sufficient takers to meet the targeted number of employees at the end of August 2020, the company will identify additional staff.
“Trustco as your employer proposes to pay to the voluntary retrenched Employee, based on current wages, the following as voluntary retrenchment package, subject to complying with applicable tax laws.”
On offer to employees is one month’s full remuneration as notice pay for work done for the final month of employment, calculated until last day of service, one week’s remuneration for each year of continuous service completed, Trustco shall pay any accrued but unused accumulated leave days, unvested shares of the employee will vest immediately on the date of termination in the name of the employee.
To sweeten the offer, Trustco has offered an additional two months’ notice pay equivalent to one full month’s remuneration and to pay the agreed retrenchment package as a single lump sum less tax.
The company has also put on hold salary increases for its management and supporting staff.
“The annual salary increases of all employees from supervisor level and up (Supervisor, Manager, COO, Head, Top6 support and Top6) including the Top 40 are suspended with immediate effect until further notice. Salary increases on employee level will continue, but will be fixed on an annual basic Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) only,” Rensburg’s email read.
When contacted for comment, Trustco Spokesperson, Neville Basson said, “ I cannot comment on unverified information.”
Trustco is a dual listed diversified financial services group which has an interest in insurance and investments; resources; and banking and finance, and owns companies such as Trustco Bank, Meya Mining in Sierra Leone, the Northern Namibia Development Company, and Morse Investments.
Trustco is in the process of developing the Herboths Blick development outside Windhoek on the way to Hosea Kutako International Airport, which when complete, will be a new town with urban high-rise apartment blocks, sporting facilities, schools, and a university.
Currently government, according to media reports, has been taken to court by employers who are challenging the authority of the Executive through the Ministry of Labour to suspend selected parts of the Labour Act during Namibia’s current state of emergency. They want the government’s actions declared unconstitutional.
The Ministry of Labour’s measures stipulate that during the Namibia’s Covid-19 lockdown period, employers may not dismiss any of their employees because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their businesses, they may not force employees to take unpaid leave or annual leave due to the pandemic, and they may not reduce the pay of any employee for reasons related to Covid-19.
