Maputo — The Mozambican government’s Commission on Mediation and Labour Arbitration (COMAL) has assured the payment of 64.7 million meticais (about 886,000 US dollars) in compensation and wages arrears, as well as the re-admission of 291 workers who had temporarily lost their jobs as result of labour disputes, over the first 10 months of 2020.
Alongside the mediation efforts, Comal, a body supervised by the Ministry of Labour, has also carried out a wide variety of preventive actions, which resulted not only in 736 awareness drives but also in counseling both employers and workers about the importance of social dialogue and respect for the country’s labour legislation.
Addressing on Monday in Maputo the opening ceremony of the 10th Comal national meeting, Labour Minister Margarida Talapa, said “we cannot fail to mention as well the interventions in 14 labour situations, which included one early strike warning, two strikes and 11 illegal walkouts”.
The interventions, through dialogue, Talapa said, have not only brought together the parties in conflict, but also led to agreed solutions and a return to work in every situation.
Since its creation, Comal has received 75,657 requests for meditation of which 71,179 were mediated resulting in 57,041 agreements, which is a success rate of 80.1 per cent.
Over the last 10 months, 4,689 requests for mediation were tabled in several Labour Mediation and Arbitration Centres, of which 4,524 were mediated and resulted in 3,845 agreed solutions, a success rate of almost 85 per cent.
Despite the great strides over the years, Talapa said unfair dismissals, failure to pay wage arrears, redundancy without fair compensation as well as employers’ failure to send social security contributions, although deducted from workers’ wages, to the National Social Security Institute (INSS), remain the major reasons for disputes and the subsequent search for mediation.
Talapa stressed that extra judicial labour conflict resolution must be led by professionals who know how to distance themselves from deviant behaviour, thus promoting ethical principles, integrity and transparency in their operations.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique