Mozambique: Nacala municipal workers on strike over salary arrears

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Mozambique: Nacala municipal workers on strike over salary arrears

5:21 CAT | 05 Jan 2023

Photo: Sitói Lutxeque/DW

About 100 of more than 600 employees of Renamo-led Nacala Municipal Council are on strike over wage arrears. The mayor says that the strike is illegal, but guarantees payment in three weeks.

State employees and agents in the Municipal Council of Nacala went on indefinite strike this Wednesday (04-01) demanding the payment of two months of salary (November and December) in arrears, as well as the ’13th salary’ of 2022, which the Mozambican government had already announced would not be paid.

In all, 613 employees have not been paid, about 100 of whom are now on strike.

Rafique Saíde, a municipality employee for 12 years, is one of them.

“We are without salaries and there is no information [from the city hall]. We know that salary is a sacred matter,” he explains. “We spent the Day of the Family [December 25) with nothing. We have children desperate [to know] whether or not they are going to go to school this month. We are hearing rumours that payments will only be made in February.”

According to Saíde, the purpose of the strike is to pressurise Mayor Raul Novinte and his municipal government into resolving the problem urgently. Until that happens, the doors of some departments are closed, and the strikers promise to keep them that way until their demands are satisfied.

“Since the president [of Nacala council] does not show his face or give us an explanation, or even address what is happening, we thought it convenient to close the institution. We demand that he pay us the salaries and the ’13th month’. Without it, we will not reopen. The president never met us, even to come and wish us happy holidays,” the striking worker says, visibly angry.

Nacalalstrike.dw_ — *Employees downed tools and gathered at the municipal depot [Photo: Sitói Lutxeque/DW]*

“We want our money”

Mayassa Jamal, a seasonal street sweeper, is also on strike. Unlike other municipal employees, the city council owes her six months’ salary. She tells DW that she experienced her worst financial crisis ever.

“I’m a street sweeper, and my job is to clean the city. I earn 2,500 meticais a month [€37.00]. We want him [the mayor] to pay us our salaries. And he, instead of talking, insults us. We want our money,” Mayassa says.

The council claims to have already responded. Arlindo Chissale, Director of Communication and Image at the municipality, says the strike is illegal, although he acknowledges the workers’ grievances.

“We recognize the pain of the approximately 600 Nacala municipality employees, and it [their complaint] is justified,” he maintains. “But we are facing many problems here, including the illegality of the strike. Illegal, because a strike request letter was prepared and left at the secretariat yesterday, but it had not even arrived at the president’s [mayor’s] office by three o’clock today, when the strike started.”

Nacalastrikee.dw_ — *Striking workers have blocked access to Municipal services. [Photo: Sitói Lutxeque/DW]*

Budget burden and delays

Chissale guarantees that the city council will make the payments later this month, but this is not the first time that employees have protested against the municipality over delays in paying wages.

Chissale says that budget burdens and delays in the disbursement of funds at central level are at the root of the problem.

“When we started this mandate, salaries alone were 8.5 million meticais. Now, they have risen to 13.3 million meticais. This increase is due to several factors, from employee promotions to the enrolment of more than 100 City Police agents, at the request of the city’s business sector,” he says.

Nacala is one of the five municipalities managed by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in Nampula province, and is considered the economic hub of the province.

Source: Deutsche Welle