16 July 2008
Maputo — Mozambican Labour Minister Helena Taipo believes that all necessary conditions are now in place for the "correct and uniform" application of the country's new labour law, which took effect in late 2007.
Speaking on Tuesday, at the end of a two day seminar between labour inspectors, judges from provincial law courts, and provincial prosecutors, she declared that the labour law should guarantee stable relationships between employers and workers in the productive process.
The seminar had discussed extra-judicial solutions of labour disputes (through mediation and conciliation), which should be compulsory before taking the matter to the courts. However, should the employer snub mediation efforts by simply not turning up, then the local Labour Inspectorate should issue a "negative certificate" against the employer, and advise the workers to sue the company through the courts.
The problem with extra-judicial solutions is that the promised "Mediation and Arbitration Centres" do not yet exist, and the seminar urged the government to speed up their creation. Taipo was optimistic that "companies and workers will increasingly resort to mediation to obtain clarifications or solutions for the problems that affect them".
This, she believed, would improve the workplace environment, and reduce instability in labour relations.
The participants also raised the need to review all other legislation concerning the workplace to ensure that it is harmony with the new law. They insisted on the need for specific laws that would regulate child labour, particularly in the countryside, in order to ensure better protection for minors.
The participants also called for an updating of the accident compensation table. This has gone untouched for years, with the result that workers who are maimed in accidents at work sometimes receive insultingly low compensation - such as 10 meticais (about 40 US cents) for the loss of a finger.
Similarly, the seminar wanted to see more severe penalties for violation of regulations on health and safety at work. The participants pointed out that the current fines are so small that companies prefer to pay them rather than to install expensive safety equipment.
The seminar called for greater investigation by labour inspectors of cases where workers doing the same job in the same company are paid different wages. In such cases, the offending companies should be punished. The inspectors were also urged to ensure tighter control of company records over hours worked, in order to ensure that workers are not cheated of the overtime payments owing to them.
Closing the seminar, Taipo declared that she believed that paths have now been opened that will unblock the constraints that in the past have made it impossible to apply labour legislation.
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