21 former Katutura Hospital workers win N$2.78m award

A labour arbitrator has ordered the Ministry of Health and Social Services to pay N$2.78 million to 21 former employees of the ministry whose employment contracts were not renewed when they expired at the end of 2022.

The order was made in an arbitration award issued by labour arbitrator David Itana of the Office of the Labour Commissioner on Monday.

Itana found that the health ministry dismissed 21 cleaners and porters who were employed at Katutura Intermediate Hospital without a valid and fair reason and without following fair procedure.

Itana also found that a decision of the ministry not to renew the fixed-term contracts on which the cleaners and porters were employed “arbitrarily frustrated the established legitimate expectation of the applicants to be retained and progressively absorbed into permanent employment”.