Africa-Press – Mozambique. Thousands of workers took to the streets of central Maputo on Thursday for the traditional May Day march, in pursuit of higher wages and better working conditions.
Addressing the closing rally, Alexandre Manguele, the General Secretary of the country’s main trade union federation, the OTM (Organisation of Mozambican Workers), stressed the huge and growing gap between the basic requirements of an average family, and the statutory minimum wage.
According to the OTM’s calculations, a basic basket of goods and services for a family of five costs 42,955 meticais (about 670 US dollars) a month. The minimum wage comes nowhere near meeting this sum.
There is no longer a single national minimum wage: instead the minimum wage is negotiated for 14 sector and sub-sectors of activity. The lowest paid of these is the kapenta fishery on Cahora Basa lake in Tete province, where the minimum wage is just 4,942 meticais a month. The highest of the statutory minimum wages is 17,881 meticais a month, paid to workers in financial services.
The purchasing power of Mozambican workers is deteriorating with every passing day, accused Munguambe, making it impossible for the average family to pay for basic expenditure. Prices are now “prohibitive”, said the union leader, and he urged the government to take corrective measures.
“We want a minimum wage that meets the basic needs of the workers and their families”, he stressed, “and we shall never abdicate from our role of safeguarding this workers’ right”.
Munguambe also protested at the delay in starting this year’s negotiations over increasing the minimum wage. In previous years, negotiations between the government, the unions and the employers have begun in March or April, with payment of the new minimum wages backdated to 1 April. This year the negotiations are likely to be delayed until August.
Munguambe urged those companies that had not been affected by the post-election unrest to negotiate with their trade union committees now, before the general negotiations on the minimum wage got under way.
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