"Swakop Uranium accused of paying for overtime with food" 13 April 2022

SWAKOP Uranium mine is accused of convincing its permanent employees to work overtime in exchange for meals worth N$200 at the mine's canteen.

This comes after negotiations on certain continuous operations clauses have failed.

The previous three-year exemption agreement on continuous operations lapsed on 21 March this year.

Employees have since been working normal hours from Monday to Friday without overtime.

Because the mine was losing out on man-hours, it is allegedly now offering workers N$200 in food vouchers per weekend shift.

This is according to workers who prefer to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation. [...]

“We are just asking for them to increase the overtime that we have worked to 23 hours,” another employee says.

This leaves 10 hours unremunerated by the mine. [...]

The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) has accused Swakop Uranium of ignoring the ongoing negotiations' rules of engagement. [...]

Swakop Uranium operations manager Irvinne Simataa yesterday declined to comment, saying the company is preparing a press statement on the issue.

“In the meantime, I would encourage you to read the relevant sections of the Labour Act with regards to continuous operations exemptions, which is a fairly obvious process which exists and is currently applied at many companies, including non-mining commpanies,” Simataa said. [...]