New Minimum Wages Approved

25 April 2011

Maputo — The Consultative Labour Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating body between the Mozambican government, the trade unions and the employers’ organisations, on Monday approved new statutory minimum wages for all sectors of activity.

But Alcino Dias, the CCT General Secretary, refused to reveal details of the proposals to reporters. He said the new minimum wages will be formally approved by the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) on Tuesday, and it would not be appropriate to reveal the numbers before then.

He claimed that the tripartite discussions had taken place in a calm environment and the decisions taken were all consensual.

This, however, is not entirely the view of the unions. The spokesperson for the main union federation, the OTM, Francisco Mazoio, while equally reluctant to reveal any details, said the numbers that emerged from the CCT are a long way from meeting the needs of the workers.

To improve their members’ wages, he said, the OTM and its affiliates would now negotiate “company by company” to secure pay packets that are above the statutory minimum.

As far as the OTM was concerned, the minimum wage should be 7,200 meticais (232 US dollars) a month, since this was the amount needed for a basic package of goods and services for a family of five. Most of the new minimum wages, Mazoio added, “are half or less than half this amount”.

“The minimum wages that will be approved for this year are still far from satisfying workers’ needs”, he said. “The cost of living is high, and the minimum wages proposed do not cover the needs of workers and their families. We feel the need to continue working to achieve standards of living that are acceptable for workers”.

The employers’ spokesperson, Adelino Buque, said that during the negotiations, the sides were temporarily deadlocked over two sectors – the building industry, and agriculture (including sugar workers, currently the lowest paid group in the country).

Buque did not explain the dispute over these two sectors. He said the differences had been overcome, and consensus reached. The minimum wage proposals, he added, were fundamentally based on considerations of inflation and productivity.

Despite attempts by the negotiators to keep the details secret, some of the proposed minimum wages were leaked last week to the independent newsheet “Mediafax”.

According to the “Mediafax” source, the wage increases range from nine to 52 per cent. The lowest increase, nine per cent, is for the building industry. The minimum monthly wage for a construction worker would rise from 2,435 to 2,779.5 meticais.

The rise agreed for workers in the industrial and semi-industrial fishing fleets is 12.5 per cent, except for the vessels fishing on the Cahora Bassa lake, for which the increase is 10.1 per cent.

“Mediafax” claims that the minimum wage in manufacturing industry will rise by 24 per cent, and in mining by 20.4 per cent.

By far the largest rise proposed is for workers who are already relatively well off. The minimum wage in financial services is set to rise by 52 per cent, from 3,483 to 5,320 meticais a month.

Inflation in 2010 was calculated at 12 per cent. Thus any rise that is less than 12 per cent amounts to a cut in real wages.

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