Maputo, 20 Aug (AIM) – The Mozambican Ministry of Labour has introduced new regulation and quotas regarding the hiring of foreign labour, in line with the size of Mozambican companies.
According to Ministry spokesperson, Balthazar Egídio, speaking to reporters on Monday, in Maputo, on the sidelines of an extraordinary plenary session of the Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), among the innovations are a new classification of companies which, for the first time include micro-companies in the labor regime.
The CCT is a tripartite body which negotiates labour issues between the government, the trade unions, and the employers’ associations.
Egidio said that under the new regime for foreign labour, micro-enterprises may hire foreigners to fill up to 15 per cent of their work force.
“The small companies may hire foreign workers for 10 cent of their labour force, while the medium companies may hire eight per cent, and large-companies may hire up to five per cent”, he said. “This normative instrument adjusts the new labour law, since these matters still need to be regulated”.
The previous labour law, dating from 2007, set the quota of foreign workers for small, medium and large companies at ten, eight and five per cent respectively, and had ignored micro-enterprises entirely.
For his part, the chairperson of the labour department at the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), Paulino Cossa, told the Monday meeting that the regulations are bringing changes aimed at regulating the obligations of workers and employers.
“The labour law has brought many changes that end up making it necessary for the regulations to specify how to proceed”, he said.
André Mandlate, a representative of the main trade union federation, the OTM (Mozambican Workers’ Organization), said there are a large number of foreign workers in the country doing tasks that could be done by Mozambicans, and therefore the measure in the new regulation is welcome.
“We need to bring skilled workers from abroad, and not those who are coming to learn from Mozambicans”, he said.
(AIM)
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