Labour’s roadshow brings hope
KATIMA MULILO - The Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation have successfully completed their Know Your Labour Laws roadshow with their final stop being Zambezi region on Tuesday.
The purpose of the roadshow was to engage members of the public as well as employers with first-hand information about Namibia’s labour laws, and employment creation matters and enhance public understanding.
According to the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Hedimbi, there is a concern with employers not complying with the provision of the relevant labour laws.
“We have realised during our workplace inspections, which are done by our labour inspectors, that some employers are ignorant in making sure that they enforce provisions of the Labour Act, and we, therefore, find ourselves having so many complaints that are related to employers not complying with the provision of the Act,” she said.
Instances of this are wage and salary payments which are not paid on time according to what has been agreed by the parties involved.
She further stated that they noted that Zambezi region residents are happy about the roadshow and what has attracted most of them is the registration of jobseekers, which is also being done by the ministry.
“We have so far received about 80 application forms for jobseekers which will be captured into our Namibia Employment Integrated System.
Hedimbi, however, noted a concern as employers are not coming forth, and encouraged employers to also come fourth and register themselves into the system.
She further said registering on the system as an employer is not enough until they also start complying in terms of referring their vacancies to the ministry as well as recruiting directly from the system.
Hedimbi clarified that the ministry does not create employment or have employment opportunities on standby waiting for particular jobseekers to register.
She also cautioned jobseekers to ensure that they have their login credentials to enable them to apply for vacancies on their own, instead of waiting for the ministry to refer them to their relevant designated employers.
“The system is open for each and everyone, whether you have an educational background or not and whether employed or not. The economy is not only by white collar but blue collar as well,” said Hedimbi.
There are some job opportunities that may only require manual work and of course for that matter, we will need people with no educational background to register with the system, she said.