Government Announces New Minimum Wages

The Mozambican government on 16 April approved the new minimum wages negotiated earlier in the month in the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), the tripartite body between the government, the trade unions and the employers’ associations.
As usual, the government made no alterations, but rubber-stamped the agreements reached in the CCT. There is no longer a single minimum wage in Mozambique, Instead wages are negotiated sector by sector. There are currently nine sectors, and three sub-sectors, giving a total of 12 different minimum wages.
Announcing the new wages after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Alberto Nkutumula, said that the largest percentage increase, of over 30 per cent, had gone to workers in the mining industry, and the lowest, just 5.75 per cent, went to those employed in baking.
The government, he said, was still working out the new wage scale in line with the career structure in the public administration, and would shortly announce the full list of new public sector wages.
Asked about the case of doctors, who went on strike for nine days at the start of the year, in pursuit of demands for higher wages, Nkutumula stressed “the wages of doctors, of the police, of teachers and of other public functionaries are still being worked on, in accordance with their career structures. The matter was discussed in the Council of Ministers, but we have not yet reached a conclusion on the increase in percentage terms”.
He promised that the government will clear up all doubts on the matter “in due time”.
In the private sector, the government only determines the minimum wage. All wages above the minimum are fixed in collective bargaining, workplace by workplace. (AIM, Maputo)