Mozambique: Teachers take to the streets in Matola in protest over unpaid overtime

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Mozambique: Teachers take to the streets in Matola in protest over unpaid overtime

3:03 CAT | 04 Jan 2024

Since 2023, several professional groups have complained about delays in the payment of salaries and overtime bonuses as a result of the introduction of the Single Salary Table (TSU). [Photo: Notícias]

Dozens of Mozambican teachers took to the streets of Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, on Wednesday in protest over the lack of payment for overtime, threatening to boycott the start of the school year in the country.

“If the government does not respond to our concerns, it can rest assured that the teachers , on the opening day [of the school year], instead of presenting themselves at schools, will present themselves in the gardens, squares and streets, to claim their rights,” Isac Marrengula, president of the National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO), told the media.

Various professional classes, including teachers, doctors and health professionals, have since 2023 complained of delays in the payment of salaries and overtime since the introduction of the public sector Single Salary Table (TSU).

“They cheated us at TSU”

Holding posters with messages such as “They cheated us with the TSU” and “Pay for overtime”, the teachers marched through the streets of Matola in their white coats, singing protest songs and demanding the payment of overtime.

“We have already reached saturation point,” Marrengula said.

Local press reports that the police tried to prevent the march, claiming that teachers could not pass near government buildings.

Teachersm.op_ — *National Teachers Association threatens to boycott the start of the school year in Mozambique if it does not receive answers from the government [Photo: O País]*

In November 2023, the Minister of Education and Human Development of Mozambique said that the payment of overtime to teachers was being made “gradually”, a claim the teachers deny.

“The minister is an unscrupulous liar who does not deserve to be in the position she occupies. She lied to us. We are talking about 13 months of overtime not paid to teachers,” the president of ANAPRO said.

“Overtime has been and is being paid”

Manuel Simbine, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) however reaffirmed on Wednesday that he had received guarantees from the Ministry of Economy and Finance that teachers’ overtime was being paid in phases.

“The Ministry of Economy and Finance is working in schools to verify overtime hours. (…) In schools where the verification was completed we have guarantees that these overtime hours were and are being paid,” Simbine said, quoted by the local press.

The new public service salary table was approved in 2022 with the aim of eliminating asymmetries and keeping the state’s wage bill under control in the medium term, but its initial implementation, in addition to causing delays in payments, caused salaries to soar, with expenditure rising from 11.6 billion meticais/month (€169 million) to 15.8 billion (€231 million).

Source: Deutsche Welle