Ministry handles 2 000 labour cases to date

The Office of the Labour Commissioner in the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation handled a total of 2 048 labour cases from July to September.

This was an increase of 118 cases.

This is contained in a summary of a quarterly report for the period from July to September by the acting executive director, Aune Mudjanima, who said the ministry dealt with a total of 1 082 labour complaints from different employees, mostly on unsettled remunerations.

“As a result, an amount of N$594 813 was collected by the ministry on behalf of the affected employees,” she said.

Mudjanima said the office still faces 979 (48%) pending cases out of the 2 048 this quarter, due mainly to postponements either by parties or arbitrators; ongoing negotiations by the parties, as well as few arbitrators whose diaries are mostly fully booked due to many cases the ministry receives.

She said the situation of arbitrators being fully booked also contributes to having insufficient time to prepare and issue awards within a prescribed legal time.

“Of the handled cases, 1 069 (52%) were successfully resolved, with 747 (70%) cases resolved at conciliation while 322 (30%) were resolved at arbitration level,” she said.

Mudjanima added that the Office of the Labour Commissioner had noted a growing trend where most registered trade unions and employer organisations failed to honour obligations to submit annual returns to the commissioner.

“During this quarter, only two annual returns were received.

The office issued a communique reminding all the registered trade unions and employers’ organisations of this legal requirement,” she said, adding that they have until 30 November to fulfil this obligation, failure of which will lead to sanctions by the commissioner.

She said the ministry had observed continuous non-compliance with certain provisions of the basic conditions of employment (BCoE) such as overtime and work performed on Sundays and public holidays; collective agreements; unauthorised deductions from employees’ remunerations; provision of sick leave, as well as non-payment of remuneration.

“The ministry continues to educate members of the public, including employers and employees about their rights and responsibilities.

As entrusted by the Labour Act, the ministry conducted 600 workplace inspections to determine the compliance levels in terms of the BCoE during this quarter.

The compliance level was pleasing, whereby 517 of the inspected workplaces were found to be in compliance.

These inspections were conducted in the fishing, agriculture and hospitality sectors, and the compliance levels were rated at between 86% and 100%.

The acting executive director said the ministry is developing the third National Employment Policy with the Labour Resource and Research Institute, assisted by the International Labour Organisation, contracted by the ministry to spearhead the development of the policy and has already submitted the Draft Situational Analysis Report to the ministry.

She said the ministry continues administering the Namibia Integrated Employment Information System, which matches job seekers and potential employers.

Of the 3 927 jobseekers referred by the ministry to different prospective employers, only 288 jobseekers were placed for employment in fishing (94); public administration, defence, social security (49), and agriculture sector (49).

In addition, 4 546 jobseekers were registered, whereby the majority are female (2 555) while 1 991 are male jobseekers. – email: matthew@namibian.com.na