Mozambique: Statutory Minimum Wages Rise By Up to 16%

Maputo — Mozambican Labour Minister Margarida Talapa on Tuesday announced increases in the statutory minimum wages of between 4.4 per cent, for workers of companies fishing for kapenta (otherwise known as Lake Tanganyika sardine) on the Cahora Bassa reservoir in Tete province, to 16.1 per cent for workers in large mining companies.

The wage rises, Talapa said, result from consensus achieved at the Labour Consultative Commission, the tripartite negotiating forum between the government, the employers and the trade unions.

The increases, she claimed, were "not what is desirable, but what is possible'.

As usual, the new wages are backdated to 1 April. The increases are only for workers on the minimum wage. All wages above the minimum are negotiated through collective bargaining between employers and unions, workplace by workplace.

Employers are also encouraged to set their own minimum wages, higher than the statutory minimum.

The rises announced by Talapa are as follows. Figures are in meticais, and the wages are monthly.

Sector Current wage New wage % increase Agriculture, livestock, 5,200 5,800 11.5 hunting and forestry

Fishing (a) industrial and 5,820.75 6,220.75 6.9 semi-industrial (b) Kapenta 4,591.68 4,791.68 4.4

Mining

1. Large companies 10,353.58 12,020.2 16.1 2. Quarries & sandpits 5,850 7,380 8.5 3. Salt pans & small and

medium companies 5,759 6,035 4.78

Manufacturing 7.945 8,747.5 10.1 ( b) Bakeries 5,710 6,300 10.33 (c) Cashew industry 5,310 5,583.21 5.1

Electricity, gas and water

(a) Large companies 9,325 10,475 12.33

(b) Small companies 7,566.72 8,500 12.33

Building industry 6,700 7,409 10.6

Non-financial services 7,774.5 8,574 10.28

(a) Hotels, tourism 6.950 7.715 11

(b) Private security 7,525 8,464.5 8.87

(c) Fuel retailers 7,774.5 8,464.5 8.87

Financial services, (a) banks 14,390.85 16,061.32 12 and insurance companies

(b) Microfinances 12,741.29 14,241.29 11.77

Expressed in US dollars, the new wages range from 74.87 to 251 dollars a month.

Missing from this table are state employees (including the defence and security forces). The government will announce their new wages at a later date.

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