The Mozambican parliament on Wednesday approved a bill expanding the national social security scheme to companies employing less than 10 workers, PANA reported. When the National Social Security Institute (INSS) was set up under a 1989 law, it was compulsory for companies employing 10 workers or more to register, and to pay contributions, which would eventually cover the cost of medical bills and old age pensions.

The law specifically did not cover workers in very small companies, domestic servants, seasonal and casual workers, or the self-employed. Introducing the bill, Labour Minister Mario Sevene said the exclusion of certain categories of waged workers limited the scope of the social security system, and it was time to expand it.

The government believed the INSS now had the technical and administrative capacity to deal with the large number of small companies that would be obliged to register when the bill became law, the report said. Sevene explained that the government did not believe the time was right to include seasonal or domestic workers in the system - but he added that the entire social security legislation was being re-thought, and a new bill would come before the house, perhaps in 2002.