The adoption of the Single Salary Scale (TSU) in the country since 2022 has made it possible to practically double the value of the minimum wage in direct state administration, to 8758 meticals, according to a government document, quoted by Lusa this Monday, 6 January.
‘Public servants who earned the minimum wage in direct state administration before the TSU came into force saw their salaries revalued by the framework process, going from 4468 meticals on average to 8758 meticals,’ reads the government document on the implementation of the reform, strongly contested by various sectors of the civil service.
‘For example, in the state’s direct and indirect administration we had 89 salary levels, 103 scales, 5625 salaries and 35 supplements or allowances,’ the document points out to justify the reform.
The note also emphasises that ‘other state officials and agents who earned below-average salaries also had their salaries upgraded, particularly those in the general regime careers’, and those who ‘had above-average salaries did not have any upgrading, bearing in mind that the framework is not an administrative act of promotion, progression, career change or increase in salaries in the state apparatus’.
The document recalls that the TSU is part of the ‘set of public administration reforms’ implemented by the government to ‘value and professionalise public servants working in the direct and indirect administration of the state and thus ensure the continuous improvement of the provision of quality public services’, while also ‘correcting the imbalances that characterised the remuneration system’ of the direct and indirect administration of the state.
‘These reforms began in 1990 and, since then, there have been a number of challenges in their implementation related to the existence of different salary levels, various pay scales and many allowances, which led to differences in salaries between state employees and agents with similar functional requirements,’ the document explains, explaining the calculation method applied.
‘The TSU reinforces the protection of state officials and agents, taking into account the principle of linking permanent supplements to salary, so that officials, in retirement, receive a more robust pension close to the remuneration they earned in active service,’ it adds.
State spending on wages and salaries grew by 4.2 per cent in 2024, up to September, compared to the same period in 2023, to more than 152.9 billion meticals.
Spending on civil service salaries from January to September represented more than half of Mozambique’s total public spending in this period, which totalled 247.9 billion meticals.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said in Parliament on 7 August that the implementation of the TSU, which has been criticised for its impact on civil service salaries, has reduced wage discrepancies.
