The Single Wage Scale was last Friday approved again by Parliament. Union leader Eliazário Mausse urges employees not to incur excessive expenses in anticipation of an unrealized wage increase.

The revision of the Single Wage Scale Law (TSU) for the Public Administration was unanimously approved in full by Parliament. The deputies from the three benches say that the irregularities that were blocking the process have been corrected.

The TSU had already been approved by the deputies and promulgated by President Filipe Nyusi. But in July, the government halted the entry into force, for detecting "inconsistencies".

"Our expectation is that in October the State will be able to pay all employees according to the Single Wage Table and with the retroactive due from July," said the Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, in August.

The new wage matrix has 21 levels, ranging from 8,756 to 165,758 meticais per month, instead of 103 steps, as was previously the case. The annual impact of the application of the new instrument is estimated at 19.6 billion meticais.

The Mozambican government hopes that the TSU will reduce the weight of public service salaries from the current around 13% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 8%, in the next four years. It also intends to harmonize standards for the definition of salaries in the State, putting four criteria at the center of the formula: academic qualifications, seniority, career, and age.

In an interview with DW Africa, the secretary-general of the National Union of the Public Service (SINAFP), Eliazário Mausse, criticizes the government for the delay in implementing the new salary pyramid. He remembers that the inconformities in the salary scale had already been pointed out by the category. And he warns the employees to be moderate in their spending, because the new salary scale will not "solve all their problems".

"Expectations are enormous - the law should level out public administration salaries and some salary increment is underlying. As you may have noticed, the lowest categories are not receiving a salary equivalent to double what they had been receiving. So, at this moment, the expectation is this: that it goes into operation immediately under the terms we agreed with the Government, after the incongruities are corrected", said Eliazário Mausse.