Employees of the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (NORED) have embarked on a nationwide strike, demanding a 6% salary increase.

They said the weeklong strike will continue until their demands are met.

The acting president of the Mine Workers Union of Namibia (MUN), Mathew Mberiuana, said NORED has neglected workers' salary adjustments since 2019.

Their last increase was four percent in 2018.

Mberiuana noted that the company recently offered a 3% increase, but workers rejected, citing rising living costs and commodity prices.

"When you compare commodity prices, the cost of living, and living standards annually, everything has gone up. However, workers have not received any increase for the past seven years. During these seven years, we have repeatedly attempted to negotiate, but the company chose to take the legal route instead. We won two of those legal cases. Instead of spending that money on employees’ well-being, the company chose to fight the workers through lawyers—money that could have been used to resolve these issues amicably."

Workers also demand market-related salaries, arguing their current pay is no longer competitive.

"Even now, many company employees have purchased new vehicles, yet the human resources department seems more focused on policies than on the well-being of the people. Management’s actions clearly show they can afford to give a salary increase, but they choose not to," Mberiuana added.

Employees appealed to the management to not turn a blind eye to the workers' plight.