Staff Writer
It has emerged Pick n’ Pay could have jumped the gun by announcing plans to retrench 500 employees without reaching an agreement with the Namibia Food & Allied Workers Union (NAFAU).
According to Nafau, the union and the retailer owned by the Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group, were still to engage over the company plans and the retrenchment announcement took it by surprise, a position confirmed by company.
This also comes as it emerged that Pick n’ Pay had only communicated plans to retrench 450 employees to the union and not the 500 announced.
“We are not in agreement with them on that, we have no written agreement and we are supposed to be engaging with them. We had received notification for 450 employees and had requested a meeting regarding the letter that we had received and the meeting was for next week. As far as we are concerned we are waiting for them to respond to our request for a meeting,” Nafau General Secretary, Jacob Penda told the Windhoek Observer.
Penda said the retrenchment process by the retailer which operates 22 retail stores in the country, could not proceed without an agreement with the union on the criteria to be used to identify those to be retrenched and terms of packages to be offered.
“They can’t just do that because we need more information of their plans and need to be in agreement. They are criteria that need to be agreed and we have to be in agreement with those,” he said.
Penda said the union also accused Pick n’ Pay of labour violations when it came to paying employees working on weekends and during the lockdown.
“Employees were being made to work during the lockdown and over weeks but not being paid fairly, not in accordance with the law and that’s an area that we first need to agree on before the retrenchments. There are also issues of Pick n Pay wanting to take away employee benefits and wanting to put them on forced leave so that they don’t have to pay them, all those are issues that still need to be agreed on,” he said.
O&L Group Spokesperson Roux-Ché Locke confirmed that no deal had been reached with the union on the retrenchment plans but denied the accusation of unfair labour practices by the company.
“The negotiations are still in process with NAFAU as per the Recognition Agreement and in terms of the Labour Act. Employees were not underpaid and no benefits were taken from the employees,” she said.
“As required by the Labour Act, the company offers the following as a Retrenchment Package; One week’s remuneration for every completed year of service as severance pay; Payment of accrued leave; payment of your contractual notice period, a certificate of service and letter of good character and other benefits from retirement savings.”
Locke said all Pick n’ Pay stores will be affected by retrenchments. Some shops will be closed as part of the unit’s restructuring.
“Due to the prolonged economic downturn and reduced consumer disposable income, the company experienced marginal to negative turnover growth over the past five years. Furthermore, while the recession steadily eroded turnover, costs have increased annually above inflation on all fronts, resulting in a decline in profit, leading to losses over the last two years,” she said.
The O&L Group is one of the country’s largest privately owned companies with interests in food production, fishing, beverages, farming, retail trade, information technology, property leasing and development, renewable power generation, marine engineering, steel retailing, advertising and the leisure and hospitality industry.
