Mozambique: Consensus reached on minimum wages

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Mozambique: Consensus reached on minimum wages

12:56 CAT | 02 Sep 2025

Photo: AIM

The Consultative Labour Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating forum between the Mozambican government, the trade unions and the employers, has reached consensus on increasing the statutory minimum wages, according to a report in Tuesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.

Speaking on Monday in Maputo, at the end of a plenary session of the CCT, the spokesperson for the Labour Ministry, Baltazar Domingos, said “the negotiations took place in a calm atmosphere”. He gave no details about the new minimum wages, since these will not be made public until they are approved by the government.

He told reporters that the negotiations considered the cost of living “but we must take into account that, when fixing wages, we must look at our economy and not set wages that exceed the capacity of the employers to pay”.

The representative of the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA), Victor Miguel, described the talks as “calm and very flexible when compared with previous rounds. Life is difficult, not only for ordinary citizens, but also for employers”.

He suggested there was a trade-off between keeping workers in employment and raising their wages. Hence, the minimum wages agreed were not what was desirable, but what was possible.

The trade union representative echoed the slogan of “not desirable, but possible”. Boaventura Sibinde, of the Confederation of Free and Independent Unions (Consilmo), the smaller of Mozambique’s two trade union federations, said “the results achieved in negotiating the minimum wages are not satisfactory, but they are the possible results. We know that we are going through a difficult period”.

There is no longer a single minimum wage. The minimum wage is negotiated sector by sector. Currently, there are 18 sectors and sub-sectors of economic activity, each with their own minimum wage.

Before the start of the CCT negotiations, the country’s largest trade union federation, the OTM (Mozambican Workers’ Organisation) declared that 42,000 meticais a month (656 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) would be a reasonable minimum wage.

But there is not the slightest chance that the employers will accept this figure. None of the current 18 minimum wages come anywhere near 42,000 meticais a month.

The highest minimum wage, for workers in banks and insurance companies, is 17,881 meticais a month. The lowest, for workers in the kapenta fishing industry, on Cahora Bassa lake, in Tete province, is just 4,942 meticais a month.

The CCT should have discussed the minimum wage in April. But, under pressure from the employers, the negotiations were postponed to August. The excuse for this postponement was the post-election unrest.

The results of the October general elections, widely regarded as fraudulent, led to demonstrations, which often degenerated into violence and rioting, shutting down many workplaces, and throwing workers out of their jobs.

Source: AIM