Mozambique: Teachers want a real trade union

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Mozambique: Teachers want a real trade union

10:36 CAT | 12 Oct 2018

File photo: Direcção de Educação de Desenvolvimento Humano da Cidade de Maputo / Facebook

Mozambique’s National Organisation of Teachers (ONP) on Friday commemorates the 37th anniversary of its foundation, but is now hoping to transform itself into a fully fledged trade union.

This year’s ceremonies of the date are being held under the theme “Turning the ONP into a trade union will guarantee social dialogue to improve the conditions of teachers”.

After laying a wreath at Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, the ONP Secretary-General, Francisco Nogueira, told reporters the idea of this motto is to turn the ONP into a union that can enter into dialogue with the government in relation to the interests of teachers, and also ensure participation in administrative matters concerning education.

“Becoming a trade union will bring gains”, Nogueira said, “first, in the social dialogue with the government on the various matters we face in our day-to-day lives”.

That included negotiations on wages. Nogueira said this aspect is currently handled via Mozambique’s main trade union federation, the OTM, “and we want to negotiate directly with the government as a union”.

The ONP also wanted to discuss other matters of interest to teachers directly, without going through other trade union bodies.

Nogueira said the ONP is currently organising a Congress for next year, which will define the strategies for the transformation from a professional organisation into a trade union.

“We are taking some steps in this direction first in order to mobilise teachers and make them aware of the importance of trade unionism in Mozambique, through training and capacity building throughout the country so that we can understand the importance of the unionisation that we want in education”.

For his part, Deputy Education Minister Armindo Ngunga encouraged teachers to press ahead with the formation of a trade union.

“For us, it’s very welcome”, he said. “Trade unions are one of the pillars of democracy. It’s important that teachers should organise themselves so that they can have their own means of dialogue with the government, where they can raise their questions and concerns”.

As for the longstanding issue of overtime pay demanded by teachers, Ngunga said the government is taking major steps towards solving this problem. This year the government has managed to pay teachers for overtime every month – the problem now was dealing with overtime pay owed from previous years.

Source: AIM