The Center for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organization (NGO), says that the changes in night work conditions from 25% to 12.5% could reduce 2.4 billion Meticais a year, corresponding to just 1.28% of total spending on wages and salaries.

However, the NGO warns that such reductions could increase the level of discontent among medical professionals, who have already been on general strike since July 10.

According to the organization, the changes could contribute to a "reduction in the quality of services at health facilities, perpetuate the departure of doctors to private institutions, among other consequences, making the reductions necessary and imperative".

It should be noted that on July 26, the Ministry of Health (MISAU) submitted to the Mozambican Medical Association (OMM) a proposal to revise the Medical Statute, which aims to change the conditions of overtime work and reduce the remuneration for night work.

The NGO says in its document that the government's proposal involves reducing the pay for shift work from 30% to 7.5% (from 13,000 Meticais to 3,000 Meticais), changing the formula for calculating night overtime, reducing the amount paid per hour from 1,518 Meticais to 350 Meticais.

"Overall, taking into account the number of general practitioners, dentists and specialists, the reduction in remuneration for shift work will be more than 600 million Meticais," says the organization's document consulted by MZNews.