|
|
Mozambique: Minimum Wage Negotiations Nearing Conclusion
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
8 April 2008
Posted to the web 8 April 2008
Maputo
Negotiations between Mozambique's trade unions and the employers' associations for a new statutory minimum wage in eight of the nine sectors defined by the government are "very advanced", according to Francisco Mazoio, spokesperson for the country's main union federation, the OTM.
In previous years, there has been a single minimum wage for industry and services, and a separate, much lower, one for agriculture. But this year there will be different minimum wages for nine sectors of activity.
Mazoio told AIM that in some cases consensus has been reached and the final minutes of the negotiations are being drafted. Although he declined to give details of the wage rises involved, on the grounds that it was still "not opportune" to release figures, Mazoio said that the consensus achieved in three sectors led to a much higher minimum wage than could have been achieved under the old model of negotiation.
Nonetheless, this consensus, he admitted, was still far below the 5,300 meticais (about 220 US dollars) a month that the OTM argues is needed to purchase a basket of goods and services for the average five member household.
"The OTM's aim is to reach the value of the basket", he said, "but the economic indicators provided by the government do not allow us to establish a minimum wage of 5,300 meticais. What we are doing is to negotiate the possible minimum wage, but we hope, in the medium to long term, to achieve the ideal, which is the value of the basket".
As for the other six sectors where negotiations are still under way, Mazoio said the OTM hopes to conclude them by next Tuesday, and close the entire process by the end of the month. That would make it possible to announce all the new minimum wages during the traditional rallies on International Workers' Day, 1 May.
There was a particular delay in negotiations over the minimum wage for the public administration. Mazoio blamed this on the government's failure to appoint the members of its negotiating team on time. Nonetheless he expected these negotiations to terminate by the end of this week.
|
For Alexandre Munguambe, the OTM General Secretary, negotiating the minimum wage sector by sector allows the most productive sectors to pay their workers higher wages, and thus encourage the others to increase their productivity so that they too can pay decent wages.
But the minimum wage is precisely that - only a minimum, and companies that can pay more have always been encouraged to do so. There was nothing stopping the productive sectors mentioned by Munguambe from paying higher wages under the old system.
The current statutory minimum wage for industry is 1,645 meticais (about 68 US dollars) a month, while the minimum agricultural wage is 1,126 meticais a month. As in previous years, the 2008 minimum wage will be backdated to 1 April.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
