Denver Isaacs
31 October 2008
THE Kalahari Sands Hotel and Casino management say they have no idea what prompted a group of employees to take to the streets this week with public charges of discrimination and victimisation.
At a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, Kalahari Sands GM John Airey said negotiations between the company and the Namibian Food and Allied Workers' Union (Nafau) seemed to be going just fine by the time their last meeting was adjourned last Thursday.
On Wednesday morning however, the company was informed that workers would hand over a petition citing a host of grievances that afternoon.
Airey accepted the petition and yesterday informed the media that the company intended to continue negotiations with the union, saying it recognised the union's right to exert pressure to support demands currently under discussion.
The five-page petition raises complaints over pay slips, the use of casual employees, payment for work on Sundays and public holidays and medical aid, among others.
Airey said yesterday that many of the issues cited in the petition had been eliminated from the negotiations in previous meetings between the union and the company, and he was surprised that these issues were now again being brought up.
He said the company was studying the petition before responding to each complaint, and added that the hotel group's South African management and human resource team could be expected to play a role in whatever decisions were taken.
Responding to the workers' charge that two managers had used foul language against workers, Airey said management had not been made aware of the alleged incidents before they were mentioned in the petition.
He also mentioned that only about 35 workers had been involved in the march and petition handover on Wednesday, and said many of them were "unfamiliar faces".
That is testament to the loyalty of many of the hotel's workers, who remained at their posts throughout, Airey said yesterday.
The workers' petition contained the signatures of 185 workers.
Contacted after the event, Nafau General Secretary Kiros Sackarias rejected the company's claims that some of the issues had been dealt with already.
"These issues have been accumulating, some since 2006.
We have the documented proof," he said.
Sackarias accused Kalahari Sands of constantly delaying negotiations with its insistence that big decisions be made by its mother body, Sun International, based in South Africa.
"We keep hearing about Sun International policies.
We say we have our own laws that count here in Namibia," Sackarias said.
He said the workers were anxiously awaiting the company's official response to their petition, and were ready for possible industrial action.
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