Trends in collective bargaining in 1post-independence Namibian public sector

Abstract

The emergence of collective bargaining in the public sector is viewed as a product of economic, political, technological and social dynamics regulating the economic relationship between the government as employer and public sector employees. Although public sector employees have been denied the right to organize themselves and to bargain collectively with their respective governments, especially in many African countries, the profound changes during the recent years has dramatically changed labour relations in the public sector. In many African countries, particularly English speaking countries, the process of collective bargaining between the government and public sector employees has gained prominence as the struggle to reconcile the broad interest of the government and its employees has been waged in order to deal effectively with public employment issues. Namibia is one of the many English speaking African countries which is making tremendous efforts to harmonize the employment relationship between the government and the public servants. But these efforts are being hampered by the structural handicaps emanating from the historical legacy of apartheid and its adjunt- authoritarianism (which has found firm roots in the country even after five years of independence). The aftermath of political upheavals which almost completely destabilised the social fabric of the civil society has created an uneasy relationship between the government and the cluster of public sector employees organizations in the determination of the public sector conditions of employment.