By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – The Mozambican government has changed its mind about paying the traditional end-of-year bonus to workers of the public administration.
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Benvinda Levi said that the government is unable to pay the traditional new year bonus for 2025 to workers in the public administration.
The bonus is the equivalent of an extra month’s payment of the basic wage, and so it is colloquially known as “the 13th month”.
Levi claimed that the government had already made it clear that, if there was sufficient money in the state budget to pay the bonus, then that would be announced “by the relevant bodies”.
“When we have a solution for the 13th month, then we shall announce it”, Levi said. Although she seemed to leave the door open for a possible change of heart by the government, Levi also declared “so far there is no 13th month”.
This led to angry denunciations by workers who regarded the bonus as a right, and not a mere tradition. Some said they had been depending on the bonus to balance their household budgets.
But, less than a week later, on Tuesday, the Secretary of State for the Treasury, Amilcar Tivane, performed a government volte-face, announcing that the 13th month will indeed be paid, albeit not in full. Those entitled to receive the bonus are the workers of the public administration, members of the defence and security forces, and state pensioners.
Announcing decisions taken at a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) earlier in the day, Tivane said the government will pay 40 per cent of the 13th month to its own employees, in two instalments, one in January, and one in February.
The January payment will be made to state employees earning the minimum wage, and to other low earners. This will include most teachers and health workers. State workers at the higher end of the wage scale will be paid their bonus in February.
Tivane recalled that last year, 50 per cent of the 13th month was paid to workers of the public administration. But this year the government could not afford to pay more than 40 per cent. (MT)
