Africa-Press – Mozambique. The new Regulation of the Career and Remuneration Subsystem (SCR) of Mozambican state employees and agents maintains the right to annual payment of the 13th month, dependent on financial availability, but states that it cannot be carried over (accumulated).
In its Article 32, the SCR, approved by decree of the Council of Ministers on 28 October, provides for the payment of the 13th month to these workers and pensioners, maintaining the previous rule.
“State employees and agents in active service and retirees have the right to receive at the end of each civil year an amount corresponding to the base salary or pension they earn, subject to the existence of budgetary and financial availability,” reads the document.
The National Public Service Union recently accused the government of moving to eliminate the payment of this bonus payment in the revision, an intention denied by the Mozambican executive.
The SCR adds, however, that “state employees and agents with more than one employment link in the state apparatus” are “prohibited from receiving more than one annual supplement of the 13th salary”.
The government justifies the “need to carry out the revision” of the Career and Remuneration Subsystem, provided for in the General Statute of State Employees and Agents, foreseeing from the outset forms of promotion and other changes.
It stipulates, among other things, that employees selected to attend training or technical-professional improvement courses, refresher courses, or internships carried out domestically or abroad are entitled to remuneration at 85% of the monthly salary, in the case of part-time student employees, and 75% of the salary in the case of full-time student employees.
“Part-time student employees are considered those who provide service for at least 15 hours per week,” it further defines.
The Mozambican government approved in January this year the payment of the 13th month of 2024 at 50% to State agents and employees and at 100% for pensioners. No decision has yet been announced for this year.
The government had undertaken the commitment, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to pay public employees one-third of the 13th month in 2024 and half by 2028, according to a document reported in July last year by Lusa.
“We approved a medium-term action plan to help reduce the wage bill to 10% of Gross Domestic Product [GDP],” reads a letter sent by the Mozambican authorities to the IMF Managing Director, within the framework of the fourth assessment of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), which has since been cancelled, with a new assistance programme to the country currently under negotiation.
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