TransNamib workers demand salary hikes

Members of the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union (Natau) at TransNamib are demanding immediate inflation-related salary increases and are threatening to take unspecified action if the company fails to comply. The union claims TransNamib workers were last granted salary increments three years ago, despite repeated attempts to consult with the executive and board on the matter.“We have spoken enough,” said the Natau secretary-general John Kwedhi. “We have consulted but we are told there is no decision from the board.”Natau called on transport minister John Mutorwa, to authorise TransNamib CEO Johny Smith and his executive team to engage the union with immediate effect.The union claims TransNamib employees are the lowest paid in the parastatal sector. Dawid Tjombe, a TransNamib employee and union leader, said the fact that employees have not had salary increments over the years has meant that the growth of their pensions has stagnated, while they are struggling to keep up with increasing medical costs. The union also said the housing allowances offered by the company are very low and not market-related.Natau proposes that TransNamib evaluate and develop all of its residential properties and erven across the country, and give its employees the opportunity to acquire such properties against housing benefits. “TransNamib has lots of properties; it has a lot of houses and office space, which are not put to good use. These should be used by the company or by its employees,” suggested Kwedhi. Board must goNatau also demanded that the TransNamib board members “to do the honourable thing” and quit their positions. The three-year term of the current board, led by Paul Smit, come to an end in early November, but the union insists they should vacate their seats with immediate effect.“They must leave to pave the way for those willing to serve the nation. TransNamib is supposed to serve nation, but is being treated like a dead shark in the sea on which every small fish feed,” Kwedhi said. The workers say board members should be held accountable “for the mess” they caused at TransNamib and claim board members have been doing the work of the human resource department, by firing and suspending employees instead of occupying itself with matters of governance. The workers say the integrated strategic business plan (ISBP) should be reviewed and aligned to government's strategic outlook, in the spirit of the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) and the Transport Master Plan. The board, at its meeting with Mutorwa last Thursday, made an appeal to cabinet to approve the ISBP, which was first presented to it two-and-a-half years ago.The ISBP proposes, among others, that TransNamib sheds its non-core activities. Natau, however, called for the immediate reform of the business plan and said it has never supported the company to do away with so-called non-core functions. It also said it has never made offers to buy any of TransNamib's non-core properties.The union said a redeployment of TransNamib staff that started about two or three weeks ago should be suspended until a review of the business plan was completed. It also demanding that workers should receive proper-accredited training before they are deployed to other departments. TransNamib has in the past provided proper training to its staff at the Gammams facility in Windhoek, but this has for all intents and purposes stopped, after the training centre was outsourced some five years ago. CATHERINE SASMAN

TransNamib workers demand salary hikes

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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TransNamib workers demand salary hikes

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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