Government owned arms entity inks agreement with workers union

The commercial arm and subsidiary of the August 26 Holding, Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik announced this week that an agreement with the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (MANWU) was reached.

According to Senior Human Resources officer at Windhoeker Maschinenfabrick, Hilma Namoloh, the discussion of this agreement has come a long way.

Namoloh said, “The official signing of this agreement comes as a relief that we could finally meet each other half-way and come to an amicable agreement. The well-being of our employees are of utmost importance, hence when it comes to negotiating on their wages, we always stretch our hand as far as we can to make sure we do enough to contribute to better living conditions.”

The agreement entails an above inflationary increase in transport and housing allowances as well as an inflationary linked increase in wages over the next 3 years. This groundbreaking agreement will be valid for a period of 3 years, backdated to 1 March 2017 and also include a guaranteed as well as performance related bonus components. Both these elements are a first in the history of WMF.

This will lay the foundation for sound future working relationships as well as workplace harmony that is of utmost importance to the success of WMF in the future.

MANWU Branch organizer for the Khomas Region, Elifas Andowa, at the signing ceremony stressed on how the union has been pushing for living wages in Namibia, and how they will continue to do so in order to meet members’ expectations and needs.

“We want to thank the companies that are valuing their workers and set a good example. Windhoeker Maschinenfabrick is one of those companies. Our negotiations took a bit long, but it was handled maturely and in good faith,” he added.