The secretary-general of the National Union of Teachers (Sinprof) said that the leaders of the three trade unions and affiliated unions, who in 2024 led a general strike in the public sector to demand salary increases and better working conditions, met this Friday to discuss the matter.
In May last year, the Government and the National Union of Angolan Workers - Trade Union Confederation (UNTA-CS), the General Central of Independent and Free Trade Unions of Angola (CGSILA) and the Força Sindical - Trade Union Central (FS-CS) reached an agreement, with one of the points of consensus being the 25 percent salary increase starting in January this year, which has since been postponed until next March.
Admar Jinguma said that the unionists decided to hold workers' assemblies simultaneously in all provinces on 8 February to deliberate on the Government's position.
If the government does not comply with the agreement on the civil service salary adjustment in January, said Admar Jinguma, if it "maintains its position until that time [February], we will gather the workers in assemblies to listen to them and decide the path to follow".
The government is defending the implementation of the salary increase from March, with retroactive effects, alleging legal issues, such as legislative authorization, which for the unions "makes no sense at all, because the government has had plenty of time to do its homework".
Last week, the Angolan Secretary of State for Labor and Social Security, Pedro Filipe, announced that the 25 percent salary adjustment for civil servants, scheduled for January, should happen in the first quarter of the year, depending on the approval of the legislative package for this purpose by the National Assembly.
"In addition to the issue of salary adjustment, we have to combine it with the IRT (Income Tax on Employment) rules (...) We have certain brackets in which exemption has been assumed, but with the simple increase we will have to make an amendment to the Presidential Legislative Decree, which basically establishes the brackets and approves the salary scales, to prevent us from practicing injustices", he justified.