Justicia Shipena
The workers at the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (Nored) will proceed with planned industrial action after the High Court struck the company’s urgent application from the roll.
The court dismissed the urgent application brought by Nored against the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN).
Yesterday, High Court judge Johanna Salioga ruled the application did not meet the requirements for urgency.
“The application for condonation to bring this application as one of urgency is refused. The application is struck from the roll for lack of urgency,” she said.
Judgement had initially been expected last week but was only delivered on Monday.
The urgent application followed after MUN gave notice that its members at Nored would go on strike after collapsed wage negotiations for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years.
Talks began in June 2025 and reached a deadlock in September after several meetings. In October 2025, MUN referred a dispute of interest to the labour commissioner under section 74 of the Labour Act.
A conciliation meeting took place on 31 October 2025. No agreement was reached, and a certificate of unresolved dispute was issued. The parties then moved to engage on strike rules.
In January 2026, the labour commissioner scheduled an arbitration hearing.
Nored objected, arguing that the dispute had been referred under the wrong section of the Labour Act.
Nored had argued that it provides essential services and that the matter should fall under section 78, which requires compulsory arbitration, rather than section 74, which allows strike procedures.
The conciliator declined to rule on the objection and proceeded to determine strike rules under section 74.
At that time Nored said this was outside the conciliator’s authority. The company stated that strike rules were finalised on 16 January 2026 in its absence, despite its request for a postponement.
Later that day, MUN issued notice that a strike would begin on 22 January 2026.
Nored then approached the Labour Court last month on an urgent basis, seeking a rule nisi to prevent the strike until proceedings before the labour commissioner under Chapter 8 of the Labour Act are finalised.
MUN opposed the application and asked the court to dismiss it. The union maintains that the strike is lawful and that the Labour Court lacks jurisdiction to grant the interdict.
It argued that only technical and maintenance staff fall under essential services, while administrative, financial and corporate staff do not.
MUN represents about 225 of Nored’s 253 employees. Nored states that it cannot operate effectively with less than 10% of its workforce and would struggle to meet its obligation to supply electricity.
In response to the judgement, MUN said the High Court ruling confirms that lawful strike action cannot be blocked through court procedures.
MUN said it had spent time and resources defending what it described as its members’ constitutional and statutory rights.
Following the judgement, MUN issued a formal strike notice and informed law enforcement authorities.
The union said the protected industrial action will begin on Thursday.
