Africa-Press – Mozambique. The main Mozambican trade union federation, the OTM, has expressed its concern at the lack of unionization in the state administration, bearing in mind that membership of a union is a right enshrined in the constitution.
According to an OTM spokesperson, Damião Simango, speaking on Wednesday, in Maputo, during the parade marking the celebration of International Workers’ Day, “we are concerned about the failure to legalize trade union activity in the public administration, even though it is constitutional and the government has ratified convention 151 of the International Labour Organization on the right to organize and labour relations in the public administration.”
Simango said that the trade union movement would not stop its fight until public service workers achieved their freedom of association.
He added that the OTM is concerned at the existence of companies and institutions that deduct social security contributions from workers’ wages, but then do not channel the money to the National Social Security Institute (INSS), thus breaking the law and putting the lives of workers and their families at risk after retirement.
“The OTM finds it inconceivable that people who have worked for many years for the development of this country do not have their contributions channeled to social security. It is unfair to see them in perpetual indigence, consigned to a precarious existence and to begging due to a lack of social protection”, Simango said.
“We strongly condemn these employers and call on them to quickly regularize the social security situation of their workers”, he added.
Simango also condemned the extreme violence carried used by Islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado province. “This terror also creates unemployment, absolute poverty, despair and uncertainty about the future”, he said. “We renew our solidarity and encourage the government to find the best formula for restoring peace in that part of the country”.
The OTM also called for the reactivation of the Local Social Dialogue Forum and the effective and functional establishment of the Labour Tribunal in the northern province of Nampula.
“We encourage the government to reactivate the sessions of the Provincial Forum for Consultation and Social Dialogue, as it is a privileged space for jointly analyzing the life of the province, taking into account the observation of labour justice”, said the OTM provincial secretary, Rodrigues Júlio.
For his turn, the Deputy Labour Minister, Rolinho Farnela, said that the concerns of workers will always be the subject of reflection by the government, in the incessant search to improve labour legislation.
“The concerns will continue to be a matter for reflection and will help the government to better adjust its labour policies”, he said, explaining, however, that over the years, progress has been made in satisfying the concerns of Mozambican workers, although “many challenges remain”.
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