Mozambican doctors announced on Wednesday a new 21-day national strike, starting on Monday, contesting pay cuts with the application of the new civil service scale and lack of overtime payments.

According to the president of the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), Milton Tatie, this is once again a national strike, in which only the minimum services will be provided and which will begin at 7am on Monday.

The association justified the decision to return to strike action, after the suspension of another strike called in December, by the lack of results in the agreements reached with the government in the negotiations held at the end of last year.

"The government promised to resolve the issue of pay cuts and the lack of overtime payments from February, but so far there have been no results. On Saturday, we had a meeting with a new government team, different from the team that was negotiating with the doctors in December, and which has now informed us that it will not implement what we previously agreed," Milton Tatie explained to Lusa.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has promised to comment on the matter soon.

It should be remembered that the doctors had already announced their discontent in November last year, when they postponed a first strike, after meetings with the ministers of Economy and Health, in order to "give the government time" to "implement the agreed principles".

The AMM points to the "constant change of interlocutors on the part of the government" and the lack of transparency about "how doctors' salaries are being processed or not" as some of the points that have determined the failure of negotiations so far.

In the country, the implementation of the new civil service pay scale is being strongly contested by various professional classes, especially doctors, judges and teachers.

In addition to the doctors, the Association of United and Solidarity Health Professionals of Mozambique also went on strike last month in protest at the application of the new salary scale, having given the government 60 days to resolve at least part of the professionals' demands.