‘We want our money’
… Swakop hotel workers demand
DISGRUNTLEDemployees of the Swakopmund Hotel and Entertainment Centre marched to its premises yesterday to express their frustration for going without work and salaries since April last year.
The employees marched to the hotel to hand over a petition with their demands. The group of over 100 employees have been in negotiations with the hotel since last year, but the talks have proven futile, and the employees have not been at work since 27 March 2020. In April last year, the employees received their last salary from the hotel, pegged at 75% of normal wages.
In their demands, the group said they are expecting a response to their queries within 48 hours and also demanded to have a meeting with the hotel shareholders within 72 hours.
“From May, until now, we have not received a cent. We are only receiving letters on the WhatsApp groups, as well as letters from HR which means nothing,” Richard Credo Haoseb, the group’s spokesperson, said.
“The problem is that we are not getting any feedback from the union, no answers. The next step is to go back to the police to notify them that we will come and stand here. They will get tired of us because if it is possible, we will come and camp here, until they get tired of us.”
Haoseb said he has been unemployed for ten months and that the circumstances apply to his colleagues as well, although most have had to return to their native regions as they could no longer afford to live in Swakopmund.
The frustrated employees also accused their union of mishandling their cases and failing to resolve the issue. They said that the absence of a salary has put them between a rock and a hard place as they are now unable to pay for rent, debit orders and other financial obligations with many of them risking being blacklisted as “bad credit”.
Additionally, the group said, they are faced with a challenge in sending their children back to school without the necessary materials and finances.
The hotel was also at the centre of a legal dispute between TransNamib Stocks and Stocks Leisure Namibia, leading to a judge ordering TransNamib to sell its share in the hotel to its business partner.
TransNamib was allegedly not bringing its financial share to support the hotel, which it owns with Stocks and Stocks Leisure Namibia. The hotel has assets valued at N$64.5 million with its liabilities overshadowing at N$110.6 million, The Namibian wrote last year.