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Angola: Trade Unions Reject 25% Pay Rise in March

Angola: Trade Unions Reject 25% Pay Rise in March

The Angolan trade union confederations will meet on Friday to take a position on the government’s insistence on postponing the salary increase of up to 25% for the civil service until March, a trade union source told Lusa on Wednesday.

According to the secretary-general of the National Teachers’ Union (Sinprof), Admar Jinguma, the meeting that began on Tuesday afternoon lasted well into the night, but there was no consensus between the parties.

In May 2024, the government and three trade union confederations, the National Union of Angolan Workers – Trade Union Confederation (UNTA-CS), the General Centre of Independent and Free Trade Unions of Angola (CGSILA) and the Trade Union Force – Trade Union Centre (FS-CS) reached an agreement after several phases of a general strike in the civil service, one of the agreed points being a 25% salary increase for civil servants from January this year, which has since been postponed until next March.

Admar Jinguma, one of the heads of the CGSILA, said that “everyone has stuck to their positions”, noting that the trade union centres are defending “strict compliance with the agreement”.

“Because the government at the time asked us for a lot of time and that time was granted, so it doesn’t make sense now for this whole narrative, for us the government has to fulfil what is in the agreement,” he said.

According to Admar Jinguma, at the meeting, the government defended its decision to implement the salary increase retroactively starting in March.

“The government says it’s in a position to pay in March with retroactive payments. That’s not our position. It’s just the government’s position,” added Sinprof’s general secretary, adding that the executive secretary once again claimed at the meeting that there were legal issues, a legislative authorisation, “which doesn’t make any sense, because the government has had plenty of time to do its homework.”

Last Friday, Pedro Filipe, Angola’s Secretary of State for Labour and Social Security, announced that the 25% salary adjustment for civil servants, scheduled for this month, should take place in the first quarter of the year, depending on the National Assembly’s approval of the legislative package for this purpose.

“Besides the salary adjustment issue, we must handle the IRT (Labour Income Tax) rules. As you well know, we have various brackets in the IRT code. We have certain brackets in which exemption has been assumed. Still, with the simple increase, we will have to change the Presidential Legislative Decree, which establishes the brackets and approves the salary scales, so as not to allow us to practise injustices,” he explained.

The agreement provided for the civil service salary to be updated by 25% from 2025 to 2027, with an evaluation of the format for subsequent years.

Lusa

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