YESTERDAY marked the last working day of employees at the Namibia Post and Telecom Holdings.

This was confirmed by the entity’s board chairperson, Ally Angula.

Angula and her board members were appointed to carry out a Cabinet directive to dismantle the entity. She said one of the steps in dismantling the entity was dealing with its employees.

The Namibian understands that the 16 employees working for NPTH were served with letters during early November this year, where they were informed that their services will cease on 15 December 2016.

In the letters, signed by the entity’s acting chief executive officer, Antoinette Mckay, the workers were told that they do not have to worry about unemployment, as they would be absorbed by Telecom and NamPost. Both NamPost and Telecom could not confirm this yesterday.

“The company thanks you for the years of valuable contribution and good efforts you had shared and requests you to bear with it during this process,” Mckay stated.

Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu)’s national chairman, Jacob Ramoswaane, also wrote to Angula asking why the union was not informed about the possible job losses of its members in advance.

In the letter, Ramoswaane threatened to take the issue to the Labour Commissioner as it is a breach of contract signed between the two entities.

“The board did not invite the union to discuss and negotiate our members’ packages or even explain to us their views about the packages nor did the board inform the union about the members’ future after dismantling of NPTH,” he said.

Angula told The Namibian yesterday that the Labour Law of this country is clear as to what happens in the event of winding up an operation or company, “We are following that process as detailed in the act”.

She acknowledged that the board has received the letter from the union and would address it soon. However, Ramoswaane told The Namibian that the workers have nowhere to go. “If they really go to Telecom, how and when will it be done? These are the things we needed to discuss with NPTH before they told the workers to go,” he said.