Mozambique: Government approves minimum wage increases excluding public administration and kapenta fishing sectors — Watch

The Mozambican government on Monday approved a proposal to increase minimum wages, excluding the public sector, with the executive stating that the new pay levels represent the “possible balance” that reflects employers’ economic and financial conditions. “The approved adjustments [to minimum wages] represent the possible balance at this moment, aligned with national productive capacity and the economic reality of the sectors, without ignoring the legitimate expectations of workers and society in general,” government spokesperson Inocêncio Impissa said at the end of a Council of Ministers meeting in Maputo. According to the government, minimum wages will increase between 3% and 9.8%, noting that the process took into account companies’ productive capacity, productivity levels and the economic situation of each sector, as well as the need to protect the market and ensure business continuity, the ability of employers to meet wage obligations, and internal and external impacts on the national economy.

“The Government recognises that wage improvements must be progressive and accompanied by increases in production, productivity, investment and the capacity of the economy to sustain higher incomes,” Impissa said. Mozambique’s Labour Consultative Commission had announced on 24 April that it had submitted proposals for minimum wage increases to the government, with results that satisfied trade unions, although they do not fully address workers’ purchasing power. “We are satisfied because we achieved those results, but if we look at all sectors, not all employers are able to pay the minimum wage.

Therefore, we are pleased with the results we achieved, aware that they do not meet the needs or the purchasing power of workers,” said Boaventura Sibinde, representative of the Confederation of Independent and Free Trade Unions of Mozambique (CONSILIMO). Without detailing the specific increases to be applied to wages, CONSILIMO said at the time that not all sectors reached the desired outcomes, including a subsector of the fisheries sector which “did not negotiate and has no results” for the new wage increase. Among the reasons for maintaining wages for small-scale fishers, CONSILIMO said on 24 April, are the lack of control over who is allowed to fish, water pollution and reduced capacity at the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric plant, which has led licensed fishers to fall short of expected annual results, also affecting production forecasts for the coming year. The government stated at the time that the negotiation process, which began on 23 March and involved the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) and the Mozambican Workers’ Organisation (OTM), which includes CONSILIMO, proceeded “normally”.