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Namibia: Massive Layoffs At Cross Country Carriers
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
Denver Isaacs
CROSS Country Carriers has decided to retrench 127 of its 185 workers in Windhoek.
After a week of uncertainty, workers were informed of their fate on Friday by the owner of the courier transport service, Leon Taljaard.
Workers had stopped working after unconfirmed reports more than a week ago that Taljaard had sold the company, one of the oldest courier services in Namibia.
In a written notice of retrenchment, Taljaard stated that the company was actually in the process of reorganisation because of economic reasons.
"The company did consider other alternatives to redundancy, but was left no other choice.
These alternatives would not have been practical and would not have had the desired results in the long term," the notice states.
The workers' last official working day is set as June 15, although Taljaard said they would not be expected to report for duty during the notice period.
He said workers would receive severance pay and all other money owed to them up to June 15.
Union representatives and workers on Friday expressed scepticism over the necessity of the retrenchment, with the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Natau) calling on the company to disclose the nature of the economic reasons it mentioned.
They further urged the company to list the other alternatives it had considered before opting for redundancy.
The union also objected to the company's decision to pay May salaries to retrenched workers, and their one-month notice payment on the date of retrenchment.
They unsuccessfully demanded that the company pay these amounts on Friday, and yesterday expressed the hope that payment would be made at least between June 2 and 6.
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The workers, including those not on the retrenchment list and not working in the administrative office, continued to demonstrate outside the company premises throughout the day yesterday.
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