2 September 2008
Maputo — Contrary to claims by the management of the luxury Pemba Beach Hotel in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, the Labour Ministry has indeed discovered racism towards Mozambican workers in the hotel, the General Inspector of Labour, Joaquim Siuta, told AIM on Tuesday.
When Labour Minister Helena Taipo visited Cabo Delgado, she met with workers of the hotel on 1 August. They complained bitterly at the racism and lack of respect they had suffered from a manager of South African nationality, Claudine Moodley.
As a result of these complaints, later in the month the Ministry decided to cancel Moodley's work visa. She can thus no longer work anywhere in Mozambique.
This decision was the subject of an official Labour Ministry press release on 25 August. Nonetheless, the hotel management issued its own lengthy press release, suggesting that all the accusations against the hotel were inventions by the Mozambican media.
The press reports damaged "the good name and image" of the hotel, and it solemnly warned the editors responsible for their publication that it was protesting to the government's press office (Gabinfo), and to the media regulatory body, the Higher Mass Media Council (CSCS).
The hotel's press release claimed that, in the notices received following the Labour Ministry's inspection of the hotel, "at no time is any statement or insinuation made of cases of racism practiced in the hotel. It is not true that any foreign worker has been suspended, expelled or forbidden from working in the country for racism or any other reason".
All that had happened, the hotel claimed, was that six foreign workers had been suspended from their posts "allegedly because formal requirements concerning their hiring had not been complied with".
But when AIM contacted Siuta, he confirmed that Moodley had been accused by the hotel workers of racism, and that she would no longer be able to work in the country. Furthermore, the hotel management was well aware of the complaints against Moodley. They had discussed the problem with her, and she had promised to change her behaviour. However, she had not done so.
Siuta said the true number of foreign workers suspended was 11, not six. Pemba Beach Hotel is just a commercial name - the legally registered body of which the hotel forms part is Cabo Delgado Hotels and Resorts, which employs 390 people. Under the current labour law five per cent of these can be foreign nationals, and for these workers the company does not need authorization, but merely notifies the Labour Ministry. But should it wish to employ more foreigners, it must apply for permission and show that there are no Mozambicans who can do the job.
Five per cent of 390 is 19. But the inspectors found 30 foreigners employed by the company. "11 of them are illegal, and need authorization to work", insisted Siuta. Furthermore, this authorisation cannot be granted by any official in Cabo Delgado, but by the Minister herself (who has delegated the task to the National Director of Migrant Labour).
The 11 suspended workers may all request authorisation - with the exception of Moodley. Siuta said the Minister had made it clear that the complaints of racism against her are serious enough to warrant definitive cancellation of her permit to work.
Furthermore, there is nothing automatic about authorizing foreign workers over and above the quota. Siuta said they must prove their professional qualifications, "and if they are applying for jibs that can be filled by Mozambicans, their appeals should be turned down".
The Ministry, he said, "cannot turn a blind eye, just because this is a big company. The law is for all companies".
There were other signs of discrimination. Siuta said there were two kinds of housing for senior hotel staff - inside the hotel grounds for the foreign staff, and inferior housing outside the hotel for Mozambicans. This was completely unacceptable - such housing, he said, should be allocated solely on the basis of professional category and never on the basis of nationality.
There were irregularities in workers' contracts too. Some staff who had been working at the hotel since 2001/02 only had their contracts put into writing in April 2008. Furthermore these envisaged a probationary period of 180 days - which is illegal, since the maximum probation period envisaged by law is 90 days. "And why should someone who's been working in the hotel since 2001 have a probationary period?", asked Siuta.
The only charge made against it by the inspectorate that the hotel has accepted concerns the lack of a duly authorized set of internal regulations. The hotel management says it has appealed against the other five (concerning the foreign workers, the probation period, holidays, overtime, and short term contracts).
But the appeal has gone to the wrong address. Apparently the hotel appealed to the Provincial Labour Directorate. But the charges were laid, not by the Provincial Directorate, but by the General Directorate. "You can't appeal to a lower body against decisions by a higher one", Siuta pointed out.
Appeals sent to bodies lower than the general inspectorate were legally null and void, he said.
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