//Kharas security guards cryfoul overcontracts, wages
Security guards at Karasburg government schools claim they are being pressured to accept unlawful contracts amid disputes over unpaid wages and minimum wage compliance.
They say they are being threatened to sign employment contracts that are not in line with Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations’ rates.
A spokesperson for Nally Investments’ guards, Jacobus Basson, claims the company’s owner has been refusing to pay them the minimum wage rate of N$13.50, which was approved by the labour ministry in January.
He wants them to sign a contract with a fixed salary of N$2 300 per month, Basson says.
The labour ministry has approved the phased implementation of a national minimum wage for security guards.
Security personnel are supposed to be paid N$13.50 per hour effective from 1 January, with further increases to N$16 in 2026, and N$18 in 2027.
Basson says arbitration involving Nally Investment’s supervisor took place on 7 April.
“. . . and we agreed to negotiate to pay the securities according to the labour rate as from January 2025 and the back pay as from 2023, but Nally Investment refused and came again with contracts for a fix salary of N$2 300 a month, and threatened that the guards must sign within seven days or they are fired,” he says.
Basson says the group of guards have registered a labour case.
“The owner just threatened us with her lawyer and refused to negotiate or talk to any security guard,” he says.
The group is calling on minister of justice and labour relations Wise Immanuel to visit Keetmanshoop’s labour office.
‘MINISTRY MUST PAY MORE’
Nally Investments owner Nally Henog says the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts, and Culture, has to increase payments made to security companies to cater for the adjustments announced at the beginning of the year.
She says she has written to the //Kharas directorate of education do so, but this was to no avail.
“It’s not that I don’t want to pay – you cannot pay what you don’t have. I even followed up on our letter on 7 May and spoke to the finance department. I asked how much they owe us and when we can receive the payment.
“The response was that they do not know how much the arrears involve or when there would be a response to our letters,” Henog says.
She says the company has been paying the guards for overtime work since 2023 as the ministry does not cater for those days.
“So in the absence of the funds I made the fixed salary offer to the security guards as an interim arrangement,” the owner says.
Henog, however, denies threatening the guards with dismissal if they do not sign the proposed contracts.
“My company operates very transparently. These guards even have access to the invoices we claim from the ministry,” she says.
//Kharas education director Jesmine Magerman says the ministry could not make payments to adjust the rates of security companies since January as they had to wait for the ministry’s new budget, which came into effect in April.
Magerman says the ministry was not aware that the Cabinet would approve the decision for an increased minimum wage for security guards, therefore, it was not catered for.
“But currently we have their invoices and are busy doing the calculations of how much we owe them. It took a long time because we are short of staff as two accountants took transfers.
“But I asked them this morning to ensure that we pay the security companies at the end of May,” she says.
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