Mozambique: Police commander calls for calm over unpaid wages – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Police commander calls for calm over unpaid wages – Watch

4:13 CAT | 07 Aug 2023

Screen grab: STV

The commander-general of the Mozambican police, Bernardino Rafael, said on Saturday that he is aware of the negative consequences of the two-month delay in paying agents’ salaries, asking the corporation for “calmness and a vote of confidence” .

“I have colleagues who have health problems, who are not being operated on because they have not had their salaries” to cover expenses, Bernardino Rafael said during a visit to Nangade district, in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country.

A problem with the computer system and the implementation of the new Single Salary Table (TSU) is causing delays in the payment of civil service salaries, the government admitted in July.

According to Bernardino Rafael, some police officers were expelled from the houses they rented and others whose children could not take school tests because their parents “did not pay the fees”.

“I am aware of all this,” Rafael stressed, acknowledging that there is “something wrong” in the application of the new salary scale, but that it is being corrected.

“I ask once again for calm and that you give us a vote of confidence […] I have no one else to defend but the police,” he declared, saying that a proposal was presented to the Ministry of Economy and Finance to solve the problem.

The TSU was approved in 2022 in order to eliminate asymmetries and keep the state’s wage bill under control in the medium term, but implementation caused wages to skyrocket by around 36% from 11.6 billion meticais a month (€169 million) to 15.8 billion (€231 million).

The new state salary matrix has 21 levels, ranging between 8,756 and 165,758 meticais (€134 to 2,580 euros), instead of the previous 103 gradations.

The implementation of the new civil service salary scale is being strongly contested by various professional classes, especially doctors, judges and teachers.