Mozambican private security companies in crisis

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Mozambican private security companies in crisis

7:50 CAT | 10 Oct 2016

Private security, once a booming sector in the Mozambican economy, has sunk into crisis, and over the past 12 months around 2,300 workers in private security companies have lost their jobs, according to a report in Saturday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

Boaventura Sibindy, the General Secretary of the Union of Workers of Private Security Companies, describes the situation as “drastic”.

Many of the workers made redundant are owed wage arrears, and have not received redundancy pays. There are 52,000 workers still employed by the companies, but they too also face wage arrears, sometimes for several months.

Sibindy said that, when the union attempts to put pressure on the employers, they justify the redundancies and the wage arrears with the claim that the companies and institutions which hire private security are not paying the invoices on time. The companies complain that the main debtors are public institutions (a claim which is very credible, given the current financial crisis in the Mozambican public sector).

Sackings and wage arrears occur in almost all the 102 licensed security companies, but the problem is particularly acute in the central provinces of Sofala and Zambezia, and in Nampula and Niassa in the north of the country.

Sibindy said that, in these provinces, there are cases of security workers who have not been paid for 11 months.

To make matters worse, the workers made redundant cannot even draw social security benefits, because the companies robbed them by deducting social security contributions from their wages, but then failing to pass the money on to the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Workers in this situation are not eligible for any of the benefits provided by the INSS.

Source: AIM