The Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation Utoni Nujoma has announced new basic conditions of employment in the fisheries industry.
According to the new framework—the standard working hours, overtime, meal breaks, daily spread-over, and weekly rest period—are among others things that have changed.
This comes after discussions with the Labour Advisory Council resulting from an application by the employers in the fishing industry that was made with the consent of the impacted workers through their trade unions.
For the following five years, the new changes came into effect as of 1 March 2023.
“The new varied basic conditions of employment provisions for fishers in terms of the ordinary hours of work is to work nine (9) hours a day if a fisher works six (6) or fewer days a week. In addition, fishers are entitled to a meal interval (lunch) of at least thirty minutes for every five hours of continuous work,” Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation Acting Executive Director Otniel Podewiltz said in a statement on Thursday.
He said the new conditions bring changes in terms of overtime for fishers, where it permits them to perform overtime not exceeding 35 hours in a week and in any case not more than five hours a day.
“Like in a normal overtime situation, affected employees should first give consent before the employer seeking authorization from the Executive Director of the Ministry of Labour in order to perform overtime work.”
The variation, according to the Ministry, allows for a rest period of at least 10 hours in any 24-hour period and 77 off hours in any seven-day period in order to prevent fatigue.
“The fishers are further entitled to be paid shore leave of one (1) full day off for every seven (7) days worked at sea and a fraction of a day calculated on a pro-rata basis for less than seven (7) days worked at sea, which the employer grants upon the return of a fisher from sea.”
This indicates that the varied provisions have replaced the Labour Act’s provisions, which addressed these circumstances. The change was announced in a Government Gazette dated 1 March 2023.
“The variation gives effect to the provisions of the International Labour Organisation Convention 188 on Work in Fishing which Namibia ratified in 2018. The Convention aims to ensure that fishers have decent conditions of work on board fishing vessels with regard to minimum requirements for work on board; conditions of service; accommodation and food; occupational safety and health protection; medical care and social security,” said Podewiltz.
The Labour Act provides for the Minister to exempt any employer or class of employers from any provision of Basic Conditions of Employment except in terms of severance pay and dispute resolutions.
