More than 8000 workers lose their jobs during the first two quarters of the year
The labour and employment sector went through a difficult time of an economic downturn due to COVID-19 and close to 8881 Namibian’s lost their jobs and income while, businesses struggle to remain operational and profitable, an official said last week.
The Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation, Utoni Nujoma at an event in Windhoek said the workers were dismissed by 607 companies during the first two quarters (April to June and July to September) of this year.
“This represents an increase of more than nine times the dismissals as compared to the same period last year,” he said.
Nujoma said the Labour Commissioner also received 2631 dispute referrals during the first two quarters of this year, as compared to 2640 for the same period last year.
According to Nujoma, the strengthening of a solid and sustainable safety net for workers and employers by ensuring effective regulatory framework and compliance remains an important objective of the ministry.
“It is towards this objective that a Tripartite Task Force was established to work on the possible areas of amendments to the Labour Act,” he said, adding that its final report will soon be submitted containing proposed amendments addressing various shortcomings and improvement in the legal framework.
