Watch: New minimum wage for public administration announced – AIM report

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Watch: New minimum wage for public administration announced – AIM report

8:46 CAT | 25 Apr 2018

TVM / Labour Minister Vitoria Diogo told the reporters that the new minimum wages emerged “from a process of deep negotiations between the employers and the workers, represented by their trade unions”.

The Mozambican government on Tuesday approved the new minimum wage for the state administration, defence and security, which rises from 3,996 to 4,255 meticais a month (from 65.7 to 70 US dollars, at current exchange rates), an increase of 6.5 per cent.

Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the Minister for State Administration, Carmelita Namashalua, said That all workers in the public service earning above the minimum will receive an increase of five per cent.

Since the annual inflation rate in 2017 (based on the consumer price indices for the three largest cities, Maputo, Nampula and Beira) was 5.65 per cent, the new minimum wage represents a slight increase in real wages. But workers earning above the minimum will take a cut in their real wages.

Furthermore, the wage increases do not compensate for the 2016 inflation of 21.57 per cent.
Mozambican workers, in both the public and private sectors, have yet to recover from that hit to their living standards.

Namashalua also announced that promotions and progressions along the career structure, frozen in the public administration since 2016, will resume this year, and there is 1.8 billion meticais (about 28.6 million dollars) in the 2018 state budget earmarked for these payments.

The funeral allowance for state employees will double – from 5,000 to 10,000 meticais.

The government also decreed rises in the minimum wage for all sectors of private activity. It thus approved the consensus reached earlier in the month by the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating forum between the government, the trade unions and the employers’ associations.

There is no longer a single minimum wage. Instead the negotiations over the minimum wage have covered 15 sectors and sub-sectors. The highest percentage rise, of almost 19 per cent, is for the mining industry, while the lowest, of six per cent, is for workers in salt extraction.

The proposed new monthly minimum wages are as follows (with the old wages in parentheses):

Agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry: 4.142 meticais, (3,642 meticais), an increase of 13.94 per cent;

Industrial and semi-industrial fisheries: 5,115 meticais (4,614 meticais), an increase of 10.8 percent;

Kapenta (Lake Tanganyika sardine) fishery, on Cahora Bassa lake: 4,063 meticais (3,780 meticais), an increase of 7.5 per cent;

Mining (large companies): 8,262 meticais (6,963 meticais) an increase of 18.67 per cent;

Mining (small companies, quarries and sandpits): 5,798 meticais (5,200 meticais), an increase of 11.5 per cent;

Salt pans: 5,018 meticais (4,734 meticais), an increase of six per cent;

Manufacturing industry: 6,620 meticais (5,965 meticais), an increase of 10.98 per cent;

Bakeries: 4,699 meticais (4,335 meticais), an increase of 8.42 per cent;

Electricity, gas and water (large companies): 7,796 meticais (7,286 meticais), an increase of seven per cent;

Electricity, gas and water (small companies): 6,422 meticais (6,002 meticais), an increase of seven per cent;

Building industry: 5,786 meticais (5,436 meticais), an increase of 6.44 per cent;

Hotels and tourism: 5,878 meticais (5,328 meticais), an increase of 10.32 per cent;

Non-financial services: 6,250 meticais (5,525 meticais), an increase of 13.12 per cent;

Financial services, banks and insurance companies: 11,987.6 meticais (10,400 meticais), an increase of 14.4 per cent;

Micro-finance institutions: 10,570.56 meticais (9,240 meticais), an increase of 14.4 per cent.

Labour Minister Vitoria Diogo told the reporters that the new minimum wages emerged “from a process of deep negotiations between the employers and the workers, represented by their trade unions”.