The Minister of Labour, Margarida Talapa, recently stated that there should be a “fair balance” between increasing wages and the need to maintain and create more jobs, Clube de Moçambique portal revealed.
According to the media outlet, Talapa reiterated a long-standing claim by employers around the world that there is a kind of trade-off between wage increases and jobs, suggesting that workers must moderate their wage demands or risk losing their jobs.
Talapa was speaking in Maputo during the opening of this year’s first session of the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating forum between the government, trade unions and employers’ associations.
“We want to find a fair balance between the need to adjust wages and the creation and maintenance of jobs. During the CCT negotiations, there is no need for extreme positions of radicalisation. We call on the minimum wage negotiating teams and the leaderships of both employers’ and workers’ organisations to conduct the negotiations in an atmosphere of fraternity, calm and discretion,” he stressed.
The government also urged the use of extrajudicial mechanisms to resolve labour disputes. In 2003, he added, 8006 cases were mediated in the Labour Mediation and Arbitration Centres. Of these, 6,972 reached a peaceful resolution through the signing of agreements between the parties in dispute. However, the remaining 1,034 cases ended in deadlock.
On the other hand, the president of the Mozambican Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, called for a pragmatic approach in discussions about the minimum wage, as well as in interpreting the macroeconomic data that will be presented to the CCT by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Vuma admitted that “the macroeconomic data indicates an improvement in the economic growth rate and relative price stability in 2023. But performance was weak in the traditional sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, which fell by 4.4 per cent, and construction, where there was a drop of 3.3 per cent compared to 2022. Economic growth was only positive due to the enormous contribution of the extractive industry.”
