Mozambique: Single Salary Table doubled minimum wages – government

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Single Salary Table doubled minimum wages – government

2:36 CAT | 06 Jan 2025

File photo: Lusa

The adoption of the Single Salary Table (TSU) in Mozambique since 2022 has practically doubled the minimum wage in the direct administration of the state to 8,758 meticais (€133), according to a government document.

“Public servants who earned their minimum wage in the direct administration of the State before the entry into force of the TSU saw their salaries rise in value by the classification process, going from 4,468 meticais [€68], on average, to 8,758 meticais,” reads the government document on the implementation of the reform, which was strongly contested by several sectors of the public service.

“For example, in the direct and indirect administration of the State we had 89 salary levels, 103 tables, 5,625 salaries and 35 supplements or subsidies,” the document points out in defence of the reform.

The note also highlights that “other employees and agents of the State who received salaries below the average” also saw “their salaries rise in value, in particular those in general regime careers”, and that those who “had remunerations above the average did not receive any rise in value, taking into account that the classification is not an administrative act of promotion, progression, career change or increase in salaries in the State apparatus”.

The document recalls that the TSU was part of the “set of reforms of the Public Administration” implemented by the Government to “revalue and professionalize the civil servants who work in the direct and indirect administration of the State” and thus “ensure the continuous improvement of the provision of quality public services”, also allowing “correction of the imbalances that characterized the remuneration system” of the direct and indirect administration of the state.

“As well as avoiding the instability of the payroll resulting from the indexation of subsidies/salary supplements to the base salary, among others. (…) These reforms began in 1990 and, since then, in their implementation some challenges persisted related to the existence of different salary levels, several salary scales and many subsidies, which gave rise to salary differences between civil servants and agents of the State with similar functional requirements,” the document further reasons, also explaining the calculation method applied.

“The TSU reinforces the protection of state employees and agents, taking into account the principle of linking permanent supplements to salaries, ensuring that state employees and agents in retirement receive a more robust pension close to the remuneration they would receive while active,” it adds.

Mozambique’s state expenditure on salaries and wages grew by 4.2% to September 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, to more than 152,916 million meticais (€2,266 million).

Spending on civil service salaries from January to September represented more than half of Mozambique’s total public expenditure in this period, which amounted to 247,945 million meticais (€3,672 million).

President Filipe Nyusi said in parliament on August 7 of last year that the implementation of the TSU, which has been the target of several criticisms due to its impact on public sector salaries, had reduced salary discrepancies.

At issue is the crisis that took hold in the Mozambican state apparatus as a result of strikes and threats of strikes by public employees demanding better working conditions and protesting against delays and salary cuts that began with the implementation of the TSU, approved in 2022.

Source: Lusa