The Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN) will hold a Day of Action next week to review the just-concluded agreement on salary and benefits for public servants.

TUN Secretary General Mahongora Kavihuha says next Friday's Economic National Day of Action will unpack the recently concluded collective agreement on their salary and benefits between the government and the recognised public sector unions. 

"Based on the collective agreement that was signed, it was clear that the recognised union - I don't want to use that word - the bargaining agent acted in bad faith. 1. They misrepresented the workers, and 2. they auctioned the public servants to the highest bidder; in this case it was the government. We cannot sit as public servants that are in the bargaining unit; we need to stand up and raise and explore the legal provisions that are there, and so NANTU AND NAPWU, the bargaining unions, will be taken to the labour commission."

It is against this background, Kavihuha says, that public servants, through various ways of communication, have scheduled the Economic National Day of Action for 20 March, adding that the day will be characterised by demonstrations, petitioning and interposing work pauses. 

"Public servants will gather at a central point across various regions under the leadership of the public servant national economic day regional committee. From such central points they will proceed to their respective governors' offices, with the exception of Windhoek or |Khomas where they will proceed to the state house to hand over the petition." 

Among the demands is to have the national policy directive that requires all civil servants to make use of public hospitals and clinics as of April the 1st reviewed. 

"So public servants should have the freedom to choose which nurse or doctor can inject him or her at which facility. It's not for someone to come and tell you you should be directed there, so if they want to avert this action, they have to make sure that this is discarded, and we want to hear this before Wednesday next week. " 

Another demand is that they want a collective agreement to be scheduled pending the exhaustion of the processes contemplated by the Labour Act and the Public Servant Act. 

Kavihuha emphasised that the Friday action is not a strike but a work pause.