Mozambique: University lecturers file complaint over low salaries

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Mozambique: University lecturers file complaint over low salaries

8:48 CAT | 20 Oct 2021

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: O País]

University professors feel discriminated against regarding their salaries, when compared to other professional classes in the public service. The professors say that their salaries are very low, compared to doctors, magistrates and even the average Tax Authority employee.

In protest, the League of University Lecturers (LIDU) on Monday submitted a complaint to the Petitions Commission of the Assembly of the Republic (AR).

The lecturers thereby hope to persuade the legislators to review the group’s salary chart during the evaluation of the proposed law on the criteria for setting salaries for civil servants submitted to them by the government.

“Given that the government submitted the proposed law, we understand that the Assembly of the Republic must take into account this aspect, which places professionals who are at the forefront in the education of the citizens and of all of the other classes in an unfavourable situation,” LIDU Communication and Image Officer Hilário Chacate said.

Without giving a specific base salary that the class deserves to earn, Chacate nevertheless observed that “an average employee at the Tax Authority earns much more than a Full Professor”, which he sees as unjust.

Chacate says that the situation is not new, and that there has always been a discrepancy in the treatment of university lecturers vis-à-vis other civil servants, not only in relation to earnings, but also in other aspects as well, such as career advancement.

“Lecturers have always been treated as professional of the lowest rank. Furthermore, the charts circulating on social networks – which the Minister of Economy has disowned – continue to place the lecturers in an unfavourable situation which denies them their dignity,” he complained.

Quality of teaching was also addressed by the lecturers, who argue that “if we want quality, we must treat lecturers in a dignified and respectful way, but there is treatment here that humiliates the lecturer, which tells society and the young that teachers and lecturers are worthless and that teaching, as a profession, is at the bottom of the ladder”.

On September 9, the Mozambican Association of Judges and the Public Prosecutor’s Office also submitted a petition to the Assembly of the Republic against the approval of the Single Salary Chart, which it claims to be unconstitutional.

By Julieta Zucula

Source: O País