A group of teachers from Mozambique said this Thursday that professionals in the sector will boycott exams across the country from Tuesday unless the government responds to the demands of the new Uniform Pay Table (UTS).
“The 14th is the last day we wait for a response, and on the 15th we will paralyze activities at the national level,” one of the group’s representatives, who requested anonymity, told reporters.
The threat of a boycott of exams came a day after the National Teachers Organization (ONO), the largest and oldest in the country, acknowledged violations in teacher licensing at the new TSU at a press conference, advocating constant dialogue and distancing of any impact scenario.
The aforementioned spokeswoman for the group, who has nothing to do with the UNP, demanded the replacement of canceled or reduced subsidies as part of the reforms introduced by the new civil service salary scale.
He pointed to the psycho-pedagogical subsidy as one of the benefits that the government has eliminated and teachers now demand to return, and that overtime should be removed from base wages so that they are not taxed.
Another teacher, who also asked not to be named, said those who teach in urban areas are also in need of financial incentives, as are those who work in rural areas who receive a residence allowance.
They also want to introduce a risk subsidy because “teachers consume a lot of chalk” during their activities, and a subsidy for school exams because of the congestion that occurs during final exams.
Mozambican General Secondary Education starts on the 14th, with final exams for the 2022 academic year.
On Wednesday, Mozambique’s Economy and Finance Minister Max Tonela told parliament that cases of declines in net wages in the civil service are due to the tax burden applied to wages paid under the new TSA.
Tonela spoke during an urgent parliamentary debate about the “risk of paralysis of the civil service” convened at the request of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party.
“Given the increase in the base salary as a result of the reform, taking into account the cumulative effect of the presence of a progressive tax regime and pension contributions, we have recorded some situations of a decrease in net wages,” he said.
These cases, he continued, particularly affect specialists working in special regime, namely doctors, judges and teachers associated with the field of research.
The Minister of Economics and Finance considered legitimate some of the civil servants’ complaints about the new salary matrix, noting that some of them related to procedural violations, others to interpretation, and still others to the management of expectations.
The urgent debate about the “risks of paralysis of the civil service” takes place in a context in which several professional classes of the civil service are challenging TSU due to construction errors, the removal of subsidies, and wage cuts.
The Mozambique Medical Association has rescheduled to December 5 a national strike that was scheduled for Monday following advance negotiations but is still awaiting a response to various demands.
The Association of Judges of Mozambique (AMJ) on Monday threatened to challenge the new remuneration matrix, given that the document “casts doubt on the constitutional status of judges.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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