Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi says the government has no appetite to reduce its workforce as a means to meet rising civil servants’ demands.
Namibia has a civil servant workforce of over 100 000, and costs the government about N$2.4 billion monthly in salaries.
Although the pressure of salary increments by civil servants and unions has hit a boiling point, Shiimi said retrenchment will not resolve the current impasse, but create additional problems for the government and those affected by the retrenchment exercise.
“What would be better, to send people home and into the streets, so you can please a handful? No, it won’t be fair at all, so it is better to maintain those people with the little they are receiving for as long as they have bread to sustain themselves,” Shiimi told The Brief.
“Therefore, that is why we offered what we can, so that we maintain everyone, instead of doing so at the expense of another individual. So, retrenchment is not even an option, because it will create more suffering,” he reiterated.
The Government and Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) and the Namibia National Teachers Union (Nantu), the two main trade unions representing the employees, have reached a deadlock over salaries. The government maintains that it has no capacity to offer any increment, while the unions are demanding salaries in line with rising food costs.
It has been more than five years since civil servants’ remunerations were adjusted.
Despite the deadlock, the government has agreed to increase allowances such as housing and transport allowances, which it says will likely cost it an additional N$334 917 365.
A fortnight ago Shiimi and his counterpart Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) Peya Mushelenga said a combined increment of salaries and allowance would cost government N$3,134,102,714, a figure that is way beyond government’s reach, as it cited the high public debt currently standing at 75% of GDP, which is extremely high and unsustainable.
The unions recently demanded a 10% increment across the board, a 25% increase to qualifying amounts on housing subsidies, a 9% increase on housing allowances, a 10% increase in transport for civil servants below management, and a N$7 per kilometer tariff increase.
Responding to questions whether government had sanctioned the alleged planned recruitment by the Namibian Defense Force, which could also drive up its wage bill, despite a freeze in filling and new posts in government, Shiimi said, “I am not well acquainted with that recruitment process of NDF and its cost implications, therefore I don’t have much information, which puts me in an awkward situation to comment.”
