Against a background of increased organisation among Namibian workers some aspects of labour legislation in the South African-occupied territory have been revised.
Independent South African trade unions have begun recruiting in Namibia and a Workers Action Committee has been formed 'to encourage and assist workers to join effective labour movements or to form unions'. These organisations supplement the National Union of Namibian Workers, aligned to SWAPO, which has suffered severe repression.
Namibia's Wages and Industrial Conciliation Ordinance was amended in 1978, allowing for the official registration for the first time of trade unions representing African workers. Previously African workers were barred from membership of registered trade unions and consequently from participating in official bargaining machinery on wages and working conditions. The amendment anticipated similar legislative changes in South Africa, passed in 1980 in the wake of the Wiehahn Commission report. The report had recommended that the existing system of labour relations be overhauled to allow for the participation of African workers in the official bargaining system. In both countries agricultural workers and domestic workers are still prohibited from joining registered unions. In terms of the amended ordinance, unions in Namibia representative of African workers seeking registration, were subject to several restrictive criteria, including a prohibition on affiliation to or receipt of funds from political parties. Registration was also made subject to the industrial registrar approving the constitution and financial status of the union. Similar restrictions were included in South African labour legislation.
The Wage and Industrial Conciliation Amendment Bill, passed towards the end of 1985 in the National Assembly of the MPC Administration, introduced new restrictions on labour organisation. The Bill prohibits unions registered in South Africa from establishing branches in Namibia. It also prohibits 'non residents' of Namibia from 'advocating, encouraging or promoting the establishment of a trade union'. Similarly, persons not ordinarily resident in Namibia are prohibited from becoming officials or members of trade unions registered in the territory.
These restrictions are aimed at preventing the independent trade unions in South Africa from extending their organisation into Namibia or assisting in the formation of new unions. The South African National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)'s, for example, recruited members at the Consolidated Diamond Mine (CDM) and at the time the legislation was passed was engaged in negotiations with management for a recognition agreement. Workers at the Rossing Uranium Mine have also approached the NUM to assist in the formation of a union, at the mine. Including its membership at CDM the NUM was reported to have 4,000 members in Namibia.
Similar legislation has been adopted in the Ciskei and Bophutatswana bantustans in South Africa where the authorities were fearful of opposition from independent unions.
The Wage and Industrial Conciliation Amendment Bill has not yet been promulgated. The Administrator General has referred the legislation back to the 'cabinet' of the MPC administration because the wording of certain clauses may technically contravene the constitutional framework within which the MPC administration was set up.
In other spheres of labour relations, legislation has been passed bringing local conditions further into line with South African practices. A draft Bill on Conditions of Employment, presented to the 'cabinet' of the MPC Administration provides for a maximum 46-hour working week and maximum daily working hours for sectors not covered by previous legislation. It extends existing legislation on overtime work to shop, office, hotel, transport and building workers. The Bill includes most of the provisions contained in legislation passed in South Africa in 1983. As in the case of South Africa, however, agricultural and domestic workers and state employees remain excluded from minimum legal protection of any kind. At the same time no provisions are made for a legally enforceable national minimum wage.
If the Bill is enacted Namibian workers will be covered by legislation similar in most respects to that applying in South Africa, with the exception of the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act which provides for minimum standards of health and safety, in the workplace. The Act was passed in South Africa, partly to pre-empt issues of health and safety becoming shop floor issues.
