OSHAKATI MERJA IILEKA
Road construction workers who were temporarily employed by the Nexus Group to construct the 23 km Oshikuku-Ekango Linene road are accusing the giant construction company of paying them way below the minimum wage.
According to six temporary construction workers who have sought the assistance of the Namibia Building Workers Union (Nabwu), the Nexus group only paid them N$41 per day while the gazetted minimum wage is N$11.11 per hour.
The employees, who worked on the road from January last year to this year March, claim they only realised that they were being underpaid after they completed the project and were given certificates of service which stated that the company paid them N$11.11 per hour during their employment.
When they approached their employer, the workers further claim, the Nexus Group allegedly informed that them that the amount they received per day was "task based".
"Our clocks show that we worked every day from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon. Sometimes we even worked on weekends. We were never told we were working per task and that we were free to leave the workplace upon completion of our so-called tasks. That information only came to light after we made inquiries," said one worker.
Primus Josef, Nabwu regional coordinator, told Namibian Sun that the temporary workers approached the union because they were being "robbed", since they had no agreement on being paid per task.
"The Nexus Group was merely trying to find a cop-out so as to not pay the workers the minimum wage. They owe these workers a lot of money in back pay," said Josef.
When contacted for comment, the Nexus Group human resource manager Elias Erastus said his company does not recognise Nabwu and that Namibian Sun should rather get comment from the exclusive bargaining agent, which is the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (Manwu).
Erastus also forwarded queries to the conciliator in the matter, Martha Shipushu, insisting that no comment from Nexus was necessary once such comments were obtained.
"If you want to give your story some oomph, go speak to the conciliator in the matter and the exclusive bargaining agent," said Erastus.
Shipushu could not comment much on the issue as the matter will now go for arbitration after the Nexus group yesterday failed to show up at the Ministry of Labour offices in Oshakati to clarify the issue of payment.
According to Shipushu, on August 8, the union met with the Nexus Group for conciliation, but after the parties failed to reach agreement, the matter was set to continue yesterday.
"We were not there, so we don't know what happened. We tried to get the story from both parties but they failed to reach an agreement. Today, Nexus did not show up to clarify a few issues," said Shipushu yesterday.
On the issue of the former workers using their union instead of Manwu, Josef said that they had initially advised the temporary construction workers to go to Manwu, but after they didn't get assistance, instead approached them.
"A worker is allowed to go to whichever union they deem fit to represent them. This is their democratic right. We are the ones who declared a dispute so Nexus should answer to us, not Manwu," said Josef.