Maputo, 31 Jul (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO) on Tuesday threatened to take the Ministry of Education to court over its failure to pay teachers for the overtime they have worked.
In April, ANAPRO submitted a complaint to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, seeking solutions for the lack of payment. On Tuesday, an ANAPRO delegation, headed by its chairperson, Isac Marrengula, returned to the Assembly to see how far their complaint has gone.
They were disappointed, since the Assembly’s Commission on Petitions, Complaints and Claims had to tell them there has been no advance.
“We expected that this parliament would help solve the teachers’ problem, but we were saddened by the reply our petition received”, said Marrengula, cited by the independent television station STV.
“We had hoped that the Assembly would bring the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economy and Finance together with the teachers”, he added. “We only have a limited time”.
The deputy chairperson of the parliamentary commission, Ezequiel Gusse, told STV that the teachers are wrong and that their case is far from closed.
“There’s no reason for the teachers to leave here disappointed”, he said. “What we did was just one stage and the process is ongoing. We came to listen to the teachers, and gather their sensitivities. All this will be solved”.
Marrengula also denied the Education Ministry’s claims that the overtime payments are being made. The claim that overtime referring to the 2022 school year was being paid “is a lie”, he insisted. “We are being swindled”.
If all the paths for dialogue were blocked, he warned, ANAPRO would resort to the law, and would use the courts to force it to pay.
(AIM)
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