Mozambique: State workers’ 13th month will be 30% of base salary, paid in January, February

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Mozambique: State workers’ 13th month will be 30% of base salary, paid in January, February

6:51 CAT | 22 Dec 2023

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi /Facebook

President Filipe Nyusi announced in parliament on Wednesday that public employees would receive 30% of the 13th month salary , justifying the decision with the “complex situation that the economy is going through”.

“Despite the immense financial difficulties we face, my government has decided to allocate, for 2023, the payment of the 13th salary corresponding to 30% of the base salary, between January and February,” Filipe Nyusi said during his annual State of the Nation Address in parliament.

According to Nyusi, the pressure of the new salary table and the outstanding subsidies that the executive is paying to different classes have constrained public accounts.

The Mozambican state’s operating expenses increased by 9.4% in the first nine months of the year, to 237,414 million meticais (€3,392 million), driven by the increase in salaries, according to official data reported this month by Lusa.

According to the economic and social balance of the execution of the State Budget from January to September, this performance corresponds to 78.9% of all state operating expenses planned for this year, evaluated at almost 316,919 million meticais (€4,520 million).

The largest item is personnel expenses, which grew 16.1% until the end of September, compared to the same period in 2022, to almost 146,365 million meticais (€2,091 million), representing 78.9% of the total budgeted for the 12 months.

“The growth recorded in the personnel expenses item is justified by the effects of the implementation of the Single Salary Table (TSU), implemented in the second half of 2022, within the scope of the Public Administration Salary reform process,” the document reads.

Specifically, salaries and wages represented an increase in public expenditure of 17.9% in nine months compared to the same period in 2022, to 141,641 million meticais (€2,024 million), equivalent to 80.4% of the budget for the entire year.

The application of the new salary scale in the public service is strongly contested by various professional classes, such as doctors and teachers, with a record of salary delays and cuts in security forces criticised by various segments of the Mozambican state apparatus.

Approved in 2022 with the aim of eliminating asymmetries and keeping the state’s wage bill under control in the medium term, its launch caused salaries to soar by around 36%, from 11.6 billion meticais/month (169 million euros/month) to 15.8 billion meticais/month (231 million euros/month).

The new state salary matrix has 21 levels, from 8,756 to 165,758 meticais (€134 to €2,580), instead of 103 levels, as previously.

READ: Mozambique: Government won’t commit to paying Christmas bonus to state workers

Source: Lusa