Staff Reporter
THE results of the ballot held by TransNamib workers regarding the decision to carry out a strike or not are in and have shown that a majority of 726 workers voted in favour of striking, whilst a total of 22 voted against it.
The total workforce in the bargaining unit is 1 024 and a total of 788 of the workers voted.
This was revealed in the balloting results released by the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union (NATAU) on 15 August 2022, in which it stated that the union has given a 48-hour notice to the company for the commencement of strike. The strike is set to take place on Wednesday, 17 August, at 12:00.
Approached for commentary on the impending strike, the Public Relations Officer of TransNamib, Abigail Raubenheimer, stated that the company has received the balloting results and that it will still release a statement on the strike action.
Narina Pollman, the Secretary General of NATAU added that the notice of strike had been delivered to Webster Gonzo, the Human Capital Executive at the state-owned enterprise.
The notice of strike of the State-Owned Enterprise comes a week after president Hage Geingob stopped the impending civil servants strike by yielding in to union demands, and upscaling government’s offer by giving a 3% increase to civil servants. This offer, however, did not include those working at State-Owned Enterprises and only included government workers, Pollman said.
She added that negotiations for salary increments between the government and NATAU have been coming since 2019. In that year, the union demanded an 18% increment for A band, 15% for B band and 13% for C band.
However, these demands were too high for government, who stated that it has been facing liquidity problems since 2016 due to the economic downturn.
Pollman has added that the union had revised its demands down to two options, which is a 7% increment across the board, or a 7% increment for Band A, 5,5% increment for Band B, and a 3.5% for Band C.
She added that this compromised offer was made by the workers in October 2021, which the company rejected and maintained a zero increase.
