Mozambican regime for hiring foreign employees is “unfavourable to investment” – lawyer

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Mozambican regime for hiring foreign employees is “unfavourable to investment” – lawyer

2:35 CAT | 07 Jun 2019

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Mozambican lawyer Paula Rocha says the system for hiring foreign workers in Mozambique which imposes rigid quotas on expatriates, is not conducive to investment.

Speaking on the sidelines of a lecture on “Challenges and Opportunities in Labour Law Reform”, Rocha advocated more foreign-investment-friendly labour law rules.

“What we notice from the point of view of businesspeople is that our government has strategic plans to attract investment, but imposes increasingly restrictive rules,” the lawyer, from Mozambican firm HRA Advogados, said.

Under the rules in force, investors can only hire a few people for crucial management roles, as there is strict limitation on the number of foreigners that can be hired, Rocha noted, going on to point out that there is no glimpse of change in the proposed revision of the Labour Law currently passing through the Assembly of the Republic.

Still on the subject of this draft law, Rocha complained that fathers would get only seven days paternity leave – against the one day currently – arguing that they should be able to change places with mothers, who, under the revised law, will have 90 days leave.

“I applaud the extension of maternity leave advocated in the reform of the law, but I think that this extension should also be granted to fathers, so that they may also be present at this crucial stage of the child’s development,” Rocha said.

The lawyer also criticised the ‘grey areas’ in the draft law regarding the nature of retirement, since there is mention of a ‘right to retirement’ which the worker appears unable to waive.

“The question is: what happens, given that [in the new proposal] retirement is treated as a right, if the worker does not want to retire?” he asked.

Source: Lusa