Khomas region hard-hit by job retrenchments amid COVID-19 pandemic
The country witnessed 5748 job losses during the first quarter of 2020 with the Khomas region recording the highest number of 2838 retrenchments.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation, of these employees, 1816 were retrenched due to COVID-19 related reasons while 3932 were retrenched due to other reasons.
Following Khomas was the Erongo region with 1309 while Omaheke and Omusati Regions recorded the least of 3 and 5 respectively. Among all the regions, only Kavango-West was spared from retrenchment during this quarter.
In addition, the ministry dealt with 405 unfair dismissals, of which 13 were COVID-19 related, while the COVID-19 State of Emergency resulted in some serious operational challenges whereby the ministry recorded a backlog of about 588 cases throughout the country.
It is a common knowledge that Namibia is faced by a high rate of unemployment, which is mostly affecting women, the Executive Director in the ministry, Bro-Matthew Shinguadja said.
“During this quarter under review, statistics show that the 25-29 age category recorded a higher number of jobseekers (572), followed by 30-34 years (453) and 35-39 with 305 jobseekers registered,” he added.
According to Shinguadja progress has been made in establishing the National Minimum Wage that will be enforced across all sectors.
“Once implemented, it is expected to curb unfair remuneration rates especially in Sectors where there are currently no Minimum Wages by Agreement or in terms of Wage Orders,” he said.
