Municipal workers on strike may face dismissal
(AIM) – The strike by workers of Maputo Municipal Council, demanding that they be paid in accordance with the new Unified Wage Table (TSU), approved for the public administration, entered its second day on Tuesday, with some of the strikers claiming that they are suffering threats and intimidation.
“Our superiors say that we are participating in a strike, and so we shall be marked absent and they will punish us”, said one worker, Abilio Llambuilane, cited by the independent television station, STV.
The spokesperson for the Municipal Council, Silva Magaia, confirmed that workers who are absent will not be paid for the days they are on strike.
He told reporters this was perfectly normal – people who are not at work, for no good reason, will not be paid for that day. Their wages might be pitifully small, but they still came out of the Mozambican state budget, and the Municipal Council had to account for the use of the money.
Magaia added that any strikers in positions of responsibility will be sacked. They had taken an oath of office before Mayor Eneas Comiche, and had broken that oath. They had not even informed the Council of their intention to go on strike.
The protesters say their action is not a strike, but demonstration. But the terminology makes no difference: they are not at their jobs and so can be marked absent.
Several hundred strikers, gathered in front of Maputo City Hall, singing, dancing and banging drums. But there were fewer of them than on Monday, giving the impression that some of the strikers have drifted back to work.
The Council cites financial reasons for not paying its workers in line with the TSU. The current monthly minimum wage for municipal workers is 4,800 meticais (75 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). Under the TSU, that wage will almost double.
The Council says it cannot afford to pay TSU wages, which would cost the Council an extra 30 million meticais a month.
Magaia said the Council’s finances are already in deficit. They worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Council ran up large debts to its suppliers. Key investment projects are at a standstill, because the Council cannot pay the 20 per cent upfront that contractors demand.
Other municipalities are in the same situation. STV found that none of the eight municipalities in the northern province of Nampula are paying wages in line with the TSU, and nor is the central municipality of Quelimane. Municipal council face similar problems, regardless of the political colour of their leaderships – Maputo is run by the ruling Frelimo Party, while Quelimane and Nampula Councils are both in the hands of the main opposition force, Renamo.
The law on the TSU says that, in addition to workers in the state apparatus, it covers “decentralised entities” – a term which includes the Municipal Councils.
Key activities for the life of Maputo, such as the city’s cemeteries, are threatened by the strike. STV found that the gates of Michafutene cemetery, on the outskirts of the city, were closed and it was unable to hold funerals.
Lhanguene cemetery was temporarily closed, but, after intervention by senior managers, it re-opened.
