Mozambique’s main trade union federation, the OTM, has demanded that this year’s negotiations on the statutory minimum wage should consider a figure of 7,244 meticais (about 234 US dollars) a month, since this is what it takes to cover the basic needs of a family of five.The OTM decided to table this figure at a trade union meeting in the southern city of Matola last week, discussing strategy for the tripartite negotiations between the government, the unions and the employers’ associations.”In discussing the minimum wage, the trade union committees should use the campaign on social dialogue and the culture of work, launched by President Armando Guebuza, in order to discuss, not only the minimum wage, but also other social conditions”, said the final statement from the OTM meeting.The OTM also called for greater solidarity among all the country’s unions, so that all sectors of activity would take as their basic reference point the basket of goods and services needed to ensure a minimally decent life for the average household – the basket which the OTM now calculates would cost 7,244 meticais a month.The OTM proposal is more than double any of the current minimum wages. There is no longer a single national minimum wage – instead the minimum wage is negotiated by sector. Since there are nine sectors and two sub-sectors, there are effectively eleven separate minimum wages in the country.These range from 1,593 meticais (about 51.4 US dollars) a month for sugar workers to 3,483 meticais a month for workers in the financial sector.
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