Mozambique: Government reconsidering ’13 month’

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Mozambique: Government reconsidering ’13 month’

7:09 CAT | 20 Jan 2025

Photo: AIM

Mozambique’s new government held its first meeting on Saturday, and among its first decisions was to reconsider payment of the New Year Bonus to all workers of the public administration.

One of the last decisions of the outgoing government was that the bonus, known as “the 13th month”, because it is equivalent to an extra month’s payment of the basic wage, would not be paid this year.

The outgoing Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, had on Tuesday announced that the government does not have enough money to pay the bonus. He claimed that the state budget only contains enough money to pay the December wage bill, and to solve “some specific questions, particularly with regard to education” (a reference to the overtime payments that teachers have been demanding for months).

The immediate result was that some unions in the public administration threatened to go on strike.

In a statement, signed by the National Public Service Union and the National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO), the public administration staff warned that, as from next Monday, they will boycott all activities in order to pressure the government to pay them the 13th month.

There is no legal basis for this claim. It is not covered by the workers’ contracts. Employers, including the government, are under no obligation to pay this bonus, but it has come to be regarded as a right.

In its first statement, the new government says its “analysed the situation of paying the 13th month to public administration staff and pensioners”.

It noted the difficulties in paying the bonus immediately “bearing in mind the negative impact on tax collection because of the upheavals resulting from the violent demonstrations and the destruction of public and private assets” – a reference to the destruction and looting in December, carried out by mobs claiming to support former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

But the government promised that it “will continue to assess the situation and draw up possible scenarios for paying the 13th month”.

Thus, the new government’s first substantial decision is to reverse the last decision of its predecessor.

Source: AIM