Mozambique: Over 12,000 who their lost jobs after election protests still without compensation – OTM

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Mozambique: Over 12,000 who their lost jobs after election protests still without compensation – OTM

9:23 CAT | 14 Oct 2025

Photo: O País

The Mozambique Workers’ Organisation – Trade Union Movement (OTM-CS) said on Monday that more than 12,000 workers who lost their jobs during the post-election demonstrations remain without compensation, one year after the protests.

“At the moment, we have more than 12,000 workers who lost their jobs after the 9 October elections and, broadly speaking, these workers have not been compensated because some business people have left the country,” André Mandlate, leader of OTM-CS, told journalists during the organisation’s 49th anniversary celebrations in Maputo tyesterday.

Mandlate said that some workers received compensation that “was not fair” and added that he is advising unions to find better solutions to the situation.

The leader of the Mozambican workers’ organisation also criticised the current setting of civil servants’ salaries, which, he pointed out, indicate that the basic basket for a household of five has a minimum cost of 42,955 meticais (€585.13).

“The results achieved [in the wage negotiations] are far from meeting the basic needs of workers and their families,” complained Mandlate, calling on the government to recognise the legality of trade union action in the civil service and improve the conditions of domestic workers.

“We, as the OTM, will not feel fulfilled as long as the majority of public sector workers remain without a legalised union, and we also hope that the government of Mozambique will ratify the convention that will improve the conditions of domestic workers,” he added.

The increase in minimum wages in Mozambique, from 2.9% to 9%, depending on the sector, will have retroactive effect from 1 July, according to ministerial decrees reported by Lusa on 1 October.

According to the decrees with the wage updates, dated 22 September, these adjustments involve eight different sectors of the Mozambican economy, with the last increase in minimum wages taking effect on 1 April 2024 and the previous one in April 2023.

Mozambique experienced the worst unrest the country has seen since the first multiparty elections (1994), led by former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who rejects the election results of 9 October 2024, which gave victory to Daniel Chapo, the current President of Mozambique.

Almost 400 people died as a result of clashes between the police and protesters, according to data from civil society organisations, which also degenerated into looting and destruction of more than 500 businesses and public infrastructure, leaving at least 121,000 people unemployed, according to data previously provided to Lusa by the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA).

However, on 23 March, Mondlane and Daniel Chapo met for the first time and committed to ending post-election violence in the country, although mutual criticism and accusations continue in the public statements of both politicians.

Source: Lusa