Stefanus Nashama
A sub-contractor of Refuse Solutions Brick Factory in Walvis Bay dismissed 44 of its employees last Friday after they demanded a salary increase.
The director of Refuse Solutions Brick Factory, Zander Coetzee, confirmed this on Thursday.
He claims that a subcontractor, who employed the workers, did not live up to Refuse Solutions Brick Factory’s expectations.
“We decided to terminate the services because the sub-contractor is not delivering good results for the company,” Coetzee said.
He explained that the subcontractor occasionally fails to pay its employees and lacks supervision over its staff.
Coetzee said his company will have a meeting with the subcontractor to discuss the matter on Friday.
“We intend to keep all 44 workers. We will meet to finalise the discussion. I hope it will bring good results,” he said.
The Refuse Solutions Brick Factory currently employs more than 300 people.
In a letter seen by the Windhoek Observer, the subcontractor cited the employees’ involvement with the National Union of Retail Industry Workers of Namibia, led by social activist Michael Amushelelo, as the reason for their dismissal.
The dismissal comes into effect on 25 May.
A representative of the workers, Ester Pashukeni expressed disappointment with the sub-contractor’s decision to terminate their contracts simply for requesting a salary increase.
“The company laid us off because we asked the boss to book at least N$120 per day for us, but he refused. The work here is hard, and the salary is insufficient. The rent for a kambashu is N$1,500. What can we do with the N$800?” she said.
Pashukeni pointed out that the sub-contractor had called them lazy, even though they were expected to pack more than 60 palettes of bricks in an hour.
She expressed concerns about safety at work, stating that they are not provided protective clothing such as shoes, masks, gloves, glasses and jackets while working.
Pashukeni said they are not working on any contracts, and their employer recently told them that they are private contractors.
“We wrote a letter expressing our concern to him, but he did not respond. He only said the answer was in the letter. We are not happy. The reason we are doing this hard work is because we want money,” she stated.
On Tuesday, the workers invited Amushelelo to intervene.
Amushelelo said he recently held a meeting with the company, but he found out that the company is playing games and aims to dismiss employees for asking for a salary increase.
He stated that the company started recruiting new staff to replace the outgoing employees. The company instructed them to go home and await further instructions regarding reapplication.
“This situation needs to stop. It’s not fair to ask all 44 workers to go out on the street and wait for a subcontractor to reapply while recruiting new people. If the company wanted them to reapply, it shouldn’t be recruiting new people,” he said.
He added that if the company were to lay off employees for any reason, it should have provided them with at least one month’s notice.
Despite this, Amushelelo said that the company has been directed to retract the decision to dismiss the workers, adding that he will engage the company to improve the workers’ wages.
“The company has been directed to retract that decision, we have further directed the company to ensure that all workers have proper personal protection equipment, and we will engage with the company to improve wages as well,” he said.
In a video posted by Amushelelo on his social media accounts, the sub-contractor, whose name was not provided at the time of going to print, said that employees were not working on a contract and needed to work on the sub-contract.
“I have discussed the matter with the workers and asked them to go home while we are rectifying some of the issues regarding the subcontract,” he said.
