The Namibian

THE labour case in which two HIV-positive workers accepted a month’s salary after making claims of unfair dismissal was above board and done in a professional manner.

So said Roland Zirzow, the chartered human resource practitioner who acted on behalf of guest-farm managers Marion and Manfred Wolf in the labour dispute at Otjiwarongo in March.

He said the labour issue has been solved because they signed the agreement terminating their services and paying them an extra month’s salary.
But, he added, a civil case is an option if the workers feel they need to pursue their claims.

However, because they showed acceptance of the agreement by putting their signatures to paper, a review of the labour case is out of the question.  

The case involved two farm labourers, Philipus Shiilengifa and Angela Katjire, whose claims that they were fired because the Wolfs found out they were HIV positive caught the attention of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) recently.

The LAC last week informed The Namibian that they will pursue the claims as a “public interest case”. The LAC said the case could rest on two separate issues: a labour case and a civil claim.

However, Zirzow said this week that while Shiilengifa and Katjire are entitled to pursue a civil claim, the labour case was “solved and settled” on March 31 when the couple signed the agreement.

Zirzow said the labour case was registered last year at the Otjiwarongo Labour Commissioner’s office and that at the time, Shiilengifa and Katjire only “indicated unfair dismissal with no further detail whatsoever”.

Zirzow said during the labour arbitration process, and on the day the settlement agreement was signed, “the issue of HIV in particular was not argued”.

He said Shiilengifa and Katjire did not show up on time for the meeting with labour arbitrator Cleophas Geingob, the Wolfs and himself on the day of arbitration in March.
Zirzow claimed that while the group waited for the couple to show up, the Wolfs were prepared to settle and made a proposal to Geingob: “one month’s salary for each of the applicants”.

Geingob allegedly then phoned the two workers and they “accepted telephonically” and were instructed to come to the office.

According to Zirzow, the Wolfs then left and when the workers arrived the proposal was repeated and “that is the second time they accepted”.

Zirzow said “both were fluent in English” and no interpreter was present or necessary at the meeting.

He repeated also that the “applicants never mentioned the issue of HIV during the argument phase of the arbitration process that day”.

According to Zirzow, despite the LAC’s claims, the arbitration process was handled correctly and “Geingob was very professional”.

The Wolfs last week denied the claims made by their former employees and said they were working on a probationary period. The decision not to employ them was based on matters unrelated to their HIV status, they said.

The Wolfs have also stated that they never asked a doctor or any other person to have Katjire and her partner tested for HIV. In a letter to their lawyers in March, they claimed that they did not employ the pair based on a number of reasons, including Shiilengifa’s failure to provide his personal documents.

“We didn’t want trouble with the State,” they wrote. In addition, they claimed that the couple did not perform satisfactorily and two other workers on probation were appointed to the jobs.

They claimed that the two workers’ HIV status did not play any role in their decision to not employ them.

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