NCCI council looks at labour

The Namibia Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) held its second national council meeting in Tsumeb last weekend. This Council meeting is by constitutional obligation, held annually in November to approve among others, the budget and work plan of the Chamber for the ensuing year.
The Council noted with great concern, the labour environment, which has of late been characterised by strikes and threats for industrial action by employees in a number of private and state-owned companies. The Council also recalls its resolution during its ordinary meeting in June 2010 which called for an urgent review and amendment of the labour legislation to make it more conducive to investments.
They noted the absence of an effective dialogue among key stakeholders as one of the contributors to poor labour relations in the country and called on the three key stakeholders in the economy, namely Government, private sector and organised labour to initiate a process of dialogue as soon as possible with a view to put an end to strikes and labour unrest in the country.
The Council further considered the falling of Namibia’s ranking by various world organisations, notably the World Economic Forum and the World Bank whose latest reports indicated a significant drop in the country’s world ranking in terms of competitiveness and the ease of doing business. This situation has potential to damage the name and image of Namibia in the eyes of investors and people who may want to do business with Namibian companies.
They felt that this situation needs to be addressed by improving the areas which Namibia showed poor performance and by engaging the international community to build a better image for Namibia.
The Council called on the government and the private sector under NCCI to work out a plan of action to be jointly implemented by the two parties for the purpose of improving Namibia’s rankings on different international scales.