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Voa (File photo) / A mini-bus also known as 'Chapa' stops to pick up passengners in Maputo
Maputo bus workers, who had gone on strike on Thursday, went back to work on Saturday after an intervention by their own trade union committee.
Some of the drivers and fare collectors working for the municipal bus company (EMTPM) refused to work after the company’s board of directors issued a statement on Thursday revoking overtime payments for working on public holidays. That statement said the new measure took effect as from the end of January.
The Board said it was obeying instructions from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to reduce expenditure, in order to cut the company’s deficit, which is covered by the state budget.
Some of the EPTPM workers told reporters that their December wages had been paid with unexplained discounts, which increased the anger among the work force.
But the spokesperson for the board of directors, Lourenco Albino, told AIM that the EMTPM trade union committee met with the strikers on Saturday morning and the upshot of the meeting was that the strikers decided to return to work, leaving negotiations with the board in the hands of the trade union committee.
“The points raised by the workers were channeled to the union committee, which will follow them up in the search for a consensus with the Board of Directors”, said Albino.
He added that discussions of this nature are always sensitive, and so he could not say how long it might take to find a solution.
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