Maputo, 1 Aug (AIM) – The Mozambican government wants to reduce or eliminate allowances paid to doctors in the public administration, in line with the new Unified Wage Table (TSU) for public servants.
When the TSU was introduced last year, one of its main purposes was to consolidate bonuses and allowances into the basic wage. Workers in the public sector were not supposed to lose anything, since the much higher wages paid under the TSU would compensate for the loss of allowances.
The government’s move against allowances paid to doctors takes the form of revising the Regulations on the Statute of Doctors in the Public Service. The proposed changes have been submitted to the Order of Doctors for its opinion, reports Tuesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
The Order is a Professional body to which all doctors must belong. It should not be confused with the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), which acts as a trade union, and has organized the current doctors’ strike.
The proposal to cut allowances puts the government on a collision course with the AMM. Two of the AMM’s key demands are for unlimited overtime pay and for seniority allowances. The AMM thus wants the benefits of the TSU in terms of the greatly increased basic wage, but while keeping the old system of allowances.
The seniority allowance is currently paid when a doctor has completed three, seven, 12 and 18 years of work. This is much more favourable than the seniority allowances paid in other sectors of the public administration, which take effect only after 24 and 30 years of work.
The government is now proposing that all workers in the public service should be paid the seniority allowance at just two points in their career rather than four.
As for overtime, the current situation allows overtime pay to amount to over a third of the basic wage, thus encouraging doctors to work extremely long hours.
The government wants the maximum overtime pay, in all sectors of the public administration, to be no more than one sixth of the basic monthly wage.
Under the government proposal, the bonus for shift work will be cut from 30 per cent to 7.5 per cent of the monthly wage, and for night work from 25 to 12.5 per cent.
The current risk allowance and bonus for working exclusively in the public service will be eliminated altogether.
The immediate response from the AMM has been hostile. AMM chairperson Milton Tatia said the government was showing “insensitivity” towards doctors, and that its proposal would “liquidate the special status of the medical class”, since it would remove all forms of remuneration “that differentiate doctors from other workers”.
In addition to the current strike, the AMM is now preparing a protest against what it regard as “the destruction of the Statute of Doctors”.
(AIM)
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