The government has yet to engage with the unions representing its 107,000 civil servant workforce over the possibility of retrenchment as an option to control its ballooning wage bill.
Recently, President Hage Geingob urged the Public Service Commission (PSC) to look into reducing the government’s workforce as the current headcount was deemed unsustainable.Â
The PSC revealed that the government workforce was consuming a huge chunk of the budget, with the latest estimates putting it at N$28 billion.Â
However, the Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU) Secretary General, Petrus Nevonga, has said that no talks have taken place with the government, maintaining that no retrenchments will take place.Â
“Nothing of that nature will happen. As a union, anything that deals with the employees’ employment contractually is dealt with through the recognized agreement based on terms and conditions. For as long as it is talks or press statements and not formal, such cannot enjoy our reactions, unless tabled formally for discussion,” said Nevonga.Â
The National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) President, Phillip Munenguni, warned that it will be a protracted exercise that will not come easy on the PSC if the national leadership of the government is to forge ahead with such a decision.Â
“Laying off does not only lie with the PSC committee. There are procedures to be followed when embarking on such a process, of which as NUNW we should be part of, and in fact, there are laws that regulate employment relations, and we shall act based on such to protect the interest of our affiliate members,” he said.Â
Despite implementing a recruitment freeze over the years as part of measures to address the ballooning government wage bill, which has risen from only N$7.8 billion in the 2009/10 financial year, the government recently took up new recruitments in the uniformed service.Â
With Finance Minister Iipumbi Shiimi having made no provisions for any retrenchments in his recent budget, it is expected that government plans could be long-term.
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