15 February 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's publicly owned ports and rail company, CFM, has strongly denied claims that, in the drastic reduction of its work force in recent years, it has trampled on the rights of the workers who were made redundant.
These claims are regularly made by groups of former CFM workers, in an attempt to squeeze more money out of the company. Although CFM has replied that in reality it paid the redundant workers much more than it was legally obliged to pay, the claims have continued - notably through the Petitions Commission of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
Despite the voluminous documentation available on the subject, this week the Petitions Commission opted to spend taxpayers' money on hiring the consultancy company KPMG to clarify the issues raised by the ex-CFM workers.
"Only after this technical consultancy will the Commission be able to pronounce on the problem of the rationalization of the CFM work force, a matter which has dragged on for several years", the Commission's chairperson, Acucena Duarte, told reporters - thus breaking with the obsessive secrecy of the Petitions Commission which normally deliberates behind closed doors.
Duarte said that KPMG won a tender for the work, and has three months to conclude its investigation.
Duarte said the Commission met on Tuesday with the CFM Board of directors, but claimed there was still a need to ascertain whether the redundancy payments made to the former CFM workers "are correct or not".
The CFM board has retorted by arguing that the programme to rationalize the labour force was "exemplary and highly successful". A CFM statement published on Friday pointed out that the programme had been praised by the World Bank (which helped finance it) and by the independent auditors.
The programme was drawn up in 1998, when the company work force numbered 19,387. CFM was grossly overmanned, partly because of technological changes in the port and rail industry, and partly because sabotage by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilisation had destroyed key parts of the rail system, notably the Sena line from Beira to the Moatize coal mines. The Sena line no longer functioned but its workers remained on the CFM books.
In the ensuing years 13,577 workers left the company. CFM says that about 13,000 of these workers were given counseling, and 6,270 of them attended 475 professional training courses, intended to ensure that they could obtain other jobs or become self-employed. About 9,000 of the former CFM workers are now in new jobs or are self-employed.
Workers admitted into CFM after 1 January 1989 (when CFM became a company) had the right to severance pay under the terms of the labour law - which was three months wages for every two years or fraction of two years worked.
That was CFM's legal obligation - but the company says it paid more than twice as much: six months wages for every two years or fraction of two years worked plus a bonus of an additional six months wage. Thus somebody who had worked for seven years at CFM should have received redundancy pay amounting to two years' wages.
Prior to 1 January 1989, CFM was part of the state apparatus, and workers admitted before that date had the status of state functionaries. They could opt for an early retirement pension, paid either in monthly instalments up to their death, or in one lump sum, on the assumption that they would live to the age of 72 (much higher than the country's real life expectancy).
In addition they would receive immediate bonuses of six months wages, and 27.5 per cent of whatever had been calculated as their pension up to the age of 72.
CFM points out that, for those workers who died while the rationalisation programme was underway, the money was paid to their heirs.
The entire programme cost about 80 million US dollars. It was computerized, and was subject to three audits - CFM's internal audit, an audit by the World Bank, and an independent audit by a reputable international auditing company chosen by the government and the World Bank.
CFM also set up a commission to investigate and correct any mistakes - such as mistakes concerning the age of the worker, the date he or she joined CFM, or the details of his wages. This commission also analysed claims by workers who believed they had received less than their entitlement.
"The company's principle, which guided this entire programme, is the defence of the workers' interests", declared the CFM statement. "The need to rationalize its human resource base could not endanger the human and social traditions that CFM has accumulated over more than a century".
The CFM Board condemned "all the vain and groundless attempts to call into question an entire programme that was carefully designed and implemented to preserve and defend the legitimate rights and interests of the workers affected by the complex reform programme we have been undertaking over the past seven years".
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