Nedbank breaks silence on union threats

Nedbank Namibia yesterday expressed itself on the ongoing wage negotiations between itself and the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu), which have been dragging on since February. The bank responded to union threats of industrial action, challenging an assertion by Nafinu General Secretary Asnath Zamuee that it had dealt with the issue in bad faith. “Our considered view is that the recent comments attributed to Nafinu in the media are by no means representative of the relationship between the bank and our staff, which has been built on fair and equitable considerations,” Nedbank Senior Manager for Marketing and Communications Gernot de Klerk said. At a press conference in Windhoek earlier this month, Zamuee said negotiations had gone as far as the Labour Commissioner’s office without the parties seeing eye to eye on salary, transport allowance and housing allowance increases. De Klerk said yesterday that at 7%, Nedbank’s salary increase offer was an improvement over its initial 6.75% offer, and better than any extended in the financial industry. “As a responsible corporate citizen, Nedbank Namibia believes that the offer is more than reasonable given the current inflationary regime which hovers around the 3% mark, while it also represents the best salary offer extended by any entity in our country’s financial industry since the beginning of the year,” he said. Appointed employee union representatives were offered an additional N$800 in monthly transport allowances. Acknowledging a union call to conduct a ballot to vote on possible industrial action, De Klerk said the union was simply acting prematurely. “The bank has subsequently informed Nafinu that such a ballot will not be conducted on the bank’s premises, based on its considered opinion that such action is not only premature, but also irregular in terms of the tenets of the code of good practice, and it is furthermore incongruent with the resolution sought by both parties via the office of the Labour Commissioner.” “The bank recognises the intrinsic right to institute industrial action and fully respects the rule of law prevailing in our country. For this reason, contingency measures have been implemented to lessen and mitigate client impact to the very best of our abilities, should wage negotiations not deliver a mutually acceptable outcome,” De Klerk said. WINDHOEK DENVER ISAACS