Mozambique: Government approves new minimum wages – Watch

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Mozambique: Government approves new minimum wages – Watch

5:41 CAT | 28 Apr 2022

Screen grab: TVM

The Mozambican government on Tuesday approved new minimum wages, backdated to 2 April.

The Council of Ministers (Cabinet), at its weekly meeting, simply approved the new wages proposed on Monday by the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT). The CCT is the tripartite negotiating body between the government, the trade unions and the employers’ associations. According to the spokesperson for the Labour Ministry, Emilio Mavila, the proposal resulted from consensus between the trade unions and the employers.

There is no longer a national minimum wage. Instead, wages are negotiated on a sectoral basis, and there are now 19 sectors and sub-sectors.
The rises in the monthly minimum wage announced by the government, sector by sector, are as follows. The previous wage is shown in brackets.

1. Agriculture, hunting and forestry – 7.6 per cent: 5,200 meticais, equivalent to 81.3 US dollars at current exchange rates (previously: 4,829 meticais).

2. Industrial and semi-industrial fishing – 4.7 per cent: 5,820 meticais (previously: 5,570 meticais)

a) The Kapenta (Lake Tanganyika sardine) fishery on the Cahora Bassa reservoir in Tete province – 4.3 per cent: 4,591 meticais (previously, 4.401 meticais)

3. Mining – 4.2 per cent: 10,353 meticais (previously, 9,846 meticais)

a) Quarries and sandpits – 4.2 per cent: 5,830 meticais (previously, 5,580 meticais)

b) Salt pans – 4.2 per cent, 5,759 meticais (previously, 5,559 meticais).

4. Manufacturing industry – 6.64 per cent: 7,945 meticais (previously, 7,450 meticais).

a) Bakeries – 6.72 per cent, 5,710 meticais (previously, 5,350 meticais).

b) Cashew industry – 6 per cent: 5,510 meticais (previously 5,010 meticais)

5. Electricity, gas and water, large companies – 4.78 per cent, 9.325 meticais (previously, 8,900 meticais).

a) Small companies – 4.42 per cent, 7,566 meticais (previously, 7,246 meticais).

6. Building industry – 5.9 per cent, 6,700 meticais (previously, 6,331 meticais).

7. Non-financial services – 5.65 per cent, 7,774 meticais (previously, 6,850 meticais)

a) Hotel industry – 5.65 per cent, 6,950 meticais (previously, 6,578 meticais).

b) Private security companies – 3.08 per cent, 7,525 (previously 7,300)

8. Banking, insurance and other financial services – 6.94 per cent, 14,340 meticais (previously, 13,409 meticais)

a) Micro-finance – 6.94 per cent, 12,741 meticais (previously, 11,913 meticais).

The rise in the minimum wage thus varied between 3.08 per cent for private security companies to 7.6 per cent for agricultural workers. Just as last year, the lowest minimum wage is for workers in the Kapenta fishery on Cahora Bassa lake.

Announcing the wage rises to reporters, the government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Filimao Suaze, said “I would like to stress that the increases in the minimum wages made public today are certainly not what we desired, but they are the possible increases, taking into account the current economic and social conjuncture in our country”.

He promised that the government will continue to prioritise dialogue and social harmonization within the CCT, in the search for labour peace and stability, and the improvement of living conditions.

He urged workers and employers to hold “permanent dialogue” in the workplaces. For the private sector, the government only sets the minimum wage. All wages above the minimum are negotiated between the employers and the unions, and so Suaze insisted that where companies are producing “exponentially” this provided room for local negotiations to improve workers’ conditions.

Completely missing from Suaze’s list of minimum wages was the public administration (including the defence and security forces). Presumably the government will announce any wage increase for its own employees at a later date.

The new minimum wages do not compensate workers for the erosion in their real wages caused by inflation. Inflation over the past year (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022) was 6.7 per cent, according to the figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Watch the TVM report.