Martin Eendjala
Amidst the European Union-Namibia (EU-NAM) business forum currently underway in Brussels, Belgium, the Mineworkers Union (MUN) wants the much-talked-about Green Hydrogen (GH2) to bring about decent employment and job security.
In a recent interview with Windhoek Observer, the union Assistant General Secretary, Paul Situmba, said whatever opportunities will come from the government and investors, they should always prioritise decent employment to avoid precarious employment.
“It won’t make sense to be excited over job opportunities and employment creation if the employment created is not better than staying home, we need to be excited about employment created that is decent and safe for every citizen of this country, jobs must come with the benefits and decent for Namibia to be proud of being employed.
We will continue denouncing slave wages, and contract systems and continue advocating for living wages in the industry,” said Stumba.
He stated that as a mining sector, they are excited about the projected opportunities and growth that will come with it as reported around the green hydrogen, however, as a union representing the working class in the sector and equally the society, they will continue to uphold the union objectives.
Situmba believes that skills and knowledge transfer are very crucial if Namibia is to realise its GH2 aspirations.
“It is clear that this will be a first-of-its-kind operation to be conducted in Namibia, therefore, I believe that we need to tap from this opportunity to learn and boost our capacity and every operation that will be conducted during the green hydrogen process,” he urged.
He expressed that given recent indications that more experts will be flocking to Namibia, it should not be the opportunity for foreign nationals to come to Namibia under the pretence of being experts. Affirmative action needs to be taken seriously through skills, knowledge and technology transfer to Namibians in order to continue building the nation’s value addition.
The unionist further maintained that he hopes to have conducive labour relations in the country as the employment sector is envisaged to grow massively, thereby requiring mature engagements to avoid unrest in the country. Adding that this can only be attained if employers come with good intentions, respect the laws and understand the developmental programmes of the country.
Equally, he called on the government to ready itself, particularly the Ministry of Labour to start considering expansions of its staff complement to avoid a lack of quality service delivery once the time comes.
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