Mozambique: TSU blamed for delays in paying for overtime

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Mozambique: TSU blamed for delays in paying for overtime

8:32 CAT | 04 Dec 2023

Image: O País

The Mozambican Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, on Thursday blamed implementation of the new Unified Wage Table (TSU) for the delays in paying for overtime, particularly for teachers.

Speaking in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, during a question and answer session between the government and the deputies, Tonela said that the pressure which the TSU had exerted on the public finances made it impossible to pay state employees on time for the overtime worked.

Answering a question from the parliamentary group of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) about the repeated complaints by teachers that they are not receiving their overtime pay, Tonela said “the TSU created a discontinuity in the trajectory established in 2021 for paying for overtime”.

The introduction of the TSU led to an enormous effort for the public accounts in paying basic wages, which prejudiced regularizing the payment for supplementary work.

“There was a significant effort to regularize pending situations which accumulated between 2018 and 2021”, claimed Tonela. In 2021, the government adopted the practice of paying for overtime in the month following the overtime worked. But with implementation of the TSU in 2022, this practice stopped.

“The introduction of the TSU complicated the situation”, said the Minister, “since it represented a gigantic financial effort”. The TSU increased wages in the public administration by about 36 per cent.

He promised that the government will pay for all genuine overtime – but these payments will be gradual. Liquidating this debt, said Tonela, “is subject to a careful process of verification, validation and budgetary availability”.

Priority, he added, is always given to paying the basic wage and not overtime.

The government resorted to overtime, Tonela said, because of the shortage of qualified labour in key sectors of the public administration, including education and health. Paying overtime was thus an alternative to recruiting more teachers and health workers.

Last Monday, Education Minister Carmelita Namashalua claimed that her ministry is gradually paying teachers their overtime pay. She insisted that the overtime problem will not affect this year’s final examinations (some teachers had threatened to boycott the exams if they did not receive their overtime pay).

“The process is happening”, Namashalua claimed. “As the inspectors verify the overtime worked, gradually the payments are made”.

Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane told the Assembly that all problems concerning the TSU will be solved by December.

Source: AIM