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Maputo, 22 Jan (AIM) – Staff at the National Meteorology Institute (INAM) in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, are threatening to go on strike over allegedly unpaid overtime and shift allowances.
According to a report on the independent television station STV, 15 INAM staff claim they have not been paid allowances for overtime or for working night shifts for the years 2016, 2017, 2022 and 2023. They also claim that their requests for promotion and other career changes have stalled.
A letter from INAM staff, signed anonymously (because they say they fear reprisals), warned that air traffic will have to adopt a new timetable, since nobody at Zambezia INAM will be working at night. If they are not paid what they claim is owing, they will only work the basic hours of 07.30 to 15.30.
The INAM delegate in Zambezia, Moises Dimande, told STV he does not recognize the claims made by the INAM staff. He said the institution has done a great deal to defend the rights of its workers.
He denied that promotion and other career changes had stalled. Instead, the administrative changes involved had occurred from 2018 to 2021. All those who requested career changes, and could show that they were entitled to them, had received them, he said.
Dimande also denied delays in paying for overtime or shift work. He said that from 2018 to 2021, all the staff at the Zambezia delegation of INAM had received their wages in full.
He admitted that last year, although INAM had submitted all the paperwork, “channeling the money does not depend on us, but on the Finance Ministry, which still has not paid. It is not up to us to explain why they have not paid.
Dimande admitted that payment is still owing to the staff for 2016. 2017 and 2023.
As for the threat not to work beyond 15.30, Dimande believed that the staff would show “good sense” and would not abandon their posts.
“I believe in my colleagues”, he said. “They know what meteorology is, and its usefulness for people’s lives”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (353)
