Covid curfew: OTM wants employers to release their workers by 7 p.m.

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Covid curfew: OTM wants employers to release their workers by 7 p.m.

4:23 CAT | 18 Feb 2021

Photo: O País

Twelve days after the Head of State announcing a night curfew in the metropolitan region of Maputo, the Mozambican Workers Organisation (OTM) has come forward to contest attitudes that it sees as putting workers at a disadvantage.

The largest and oldest trade union in the country is demanding that employers release workers early enough for them to comply with the 9:00 p.m. curfew, or otherwise provide them with explanatory credentials.

“In order to comply with the decree, it is important that employers understand that there is a need to release workers, if possible, by 7:00 p.m.. This, despite us knowing that, due to the deficiencies of the transport system in the two cities [Maputo and Matola], in some cases it is impossible to get home by 9:00 p.m., even if people leave work as early as 5:00 p.m.,” pointed out Joaquim Chacate, the executive secretary of OTM-Central Union in Maputo City and Province.

Chacate appealed to the police authorities to supervise public transport at the departure points and stops, thus avoiding commuters getting off at places where they have no alternative transport, forcing them to walk long distances to find the transport they need to get home.

Without providing figures, OTM reiterated that many workers have lost their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and are now destitute because of the deficiencies of the country’s social security system.

“Mozambique needs to move towards a stage where social security actually works, so that, when someone loses his or her job, through no fault of either the employer or of the worker, he or she can be assisted by the state. This [income security for unemployed workers] is a reality, in other countries,” Chacate concluded.

The OTM also urged the authorities to show more consideration to services such as bakeries, taxis and petrol stations, which can be considered essential to the convenience of the population at large.

Source: O País