Maputo — Cane cutters at the Maragra sugar plantation, some 80 kilometres north of Maputo, went back to work on Monday, after a wildcat strike over wages and conditions that had broken out last Thursday.
According to Tuesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias", the decision to end the strike was taken when the company agreed to pay the differences resulting from alleged errors in wage processing.
The dispute arose because the company had unilaterally changed the method by which Maragra workers' wages were calculated.
In the past each worker was given an area of cane to cut, and once he had finished, his day's work was over. But as from May the management announced that workers would be paid 36,000 meticais (about 1.5 US dollars) for each six tonnes of cane cut.
Areas estimated to contain six tonnes of cane were allocated to the workers, who would be paid the 36,000 meticais regardless of how long it took them.
The workers complained that the company had no qualified staff to make the right calculations, which resulted in errors in the workers' wages. The Sugar Workers Union (SINTIA) estimates that no less than 30 per cent of the 500 cane cutters were prejudiced.
The management acknowledged the errors and started on Monday solving some of them, but it is demanding that the strikers pay for damages done to equipment in the violent disturbances of Thursday. The strikers destroyed a vehicle and several computers, and broke windows.
After negotiations it was agreed that each striker should pay 200,000 meticais for the damage. Initially the company demanded that the payment be in just two installments, but after negotiations between the management and SINTIA it was agreed that the money will be deducted from the workers' wages over three months.
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However, SINTIA wants to reopen negotiations on this point.
It argues that agricultural workers' wages are so low that the loss of 70,000 meticais a month will imply cuts in the budgets of many households.
This is not the end of the problems at Maragra. The workers have other complaints: they say, for instance, that the company does not accept doctor's certificates when a worker happens to fall ill, and also that seasonal workers were not allowed to join the union.
To address these and other problems, SINTIA decided to set up a commission to continue dialogue with the employer.
SINTIA believed that all the problems at Maragra arise from lack of dialogue between the management and the seasonal workers and between the latter and the union.
"What was happening was that there was difficulty in affiliating the seasonal workers to the union. During the negotiations it was decided that the seasonal workers should be allowed to join the trade union so that they have someone who can discuss and deal with their problems", said SINTIA secretary general Alexandre Munguambe.
No estimates have yet been made of the losses caused by the strike, but it is known that for every day it was paralysed, the company did not produce 390 tonnes of sugar, which is its installed capacity.
Although the Maragra factory workers were not on strike, they were unable to produce anything, since the cane cutters prevented them from approaching the machinery.
