Mozambique: Cashew Production - But Not At Workers' Expense

The Mozambican government is committed to producing and exporting processed cashew kernels, but not at the expense of the rights and health of cashew workers, Labour Minister Helena Taipo has warned. Taipo visited nine cashew factories in the northern province of Nampula last week, and was dismayed at some of what she found.

According to a Wednesday press release from the Labour Ministry, there were cases of companies paying less than the statutory minimum industrial wage, and of work contracts containing illegal clauses - including contracts that could be rescinded after a period of apprenticeship not agreed to beforehand between employer and worker.

Taipo found factories where workers' health was at risk, due to lack of adequate bathroom facilities or clean drinking water, lack of first aid services to deal with accidents, and lack of protective clothing. There were also cases in which workers were not covered by social security because the companies were not paying contributions to the National Social Security Institute (INSS).

At a meeting with Taipo, the employers promised to clean up their act, and to make the Nampula cashew industry "a model for all of Africa". The Minister told the meeting that the government "wants to support the cashew industry, but demands that the employers establish basic health, hygiene and safety conditions".

Workers, she pointed out, needed incentives if they were expected to increase their productivity Taipo stressed that Mozambique should set an example in complying with labour legislation, because the country currently sits on the board of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and an ILO office will shortly open in Maputo.

She promised to return to Nampula in 30 days, by which time the cashew companies should have corrected all the anomalies she had discovered. Furthermore, no new cashew processing plants will be authorised to open before first verifying whether they are providing decent conditions for their workers.

Almost all the Nampula cashew factories have been set up in the past couple of years. Originally, cashew processing was done in large, mechanised plants, but these were driven out of business thanks to the World Bank's blackmail of 1995, which made 400 million dollars worth of loans conditional on, among other things, the government drastically reducing protection for the cashew industry.

The new factories use different and cheaper technology, relying on manual shelling of the nuts. Since the World Bank has tacitly admitted that its earlier, ideologically driven policies did not work, there is a good chance that the new wave of cashew processing can survive.

Taipo also visited the Companhia Industrial de Monapo, which makes vegetable oil and soap. She discovered that this factory does not only endanger the health of its workers, but that of surrounding communities by dumping untreated waste in the Monapo river. She ordered the factory to be closed for seven days while it is thoroughly cleaned. The situation is not entirely bleak for Nampula workers.

Taipo praised the AKAI biscuit factory in Namialo, and the construction work on the Moma titanium minerals mine in the coastal district of Moma - these were examples, she said, of industries that obeyed the country's labour legislation and offered decent conditions to their workers.

But why was it necessary for a Minister to come in person to inspect Nampula industries ? The answer was clearly that labour inspectors in Nampula were not doing their jobs - and so, during her visit to the Companhia Industrial de Monapo, Taipo summarily sacked the Nampula Chief Labour Inspector, Pedro Amisse.

She accused him of indifference and lack of knowledge of the generalised violation by employers of the Labour Law. Taipo urged the other inspectors in the province to ensure that the law was obeyed, since the conditions to which many Nampula workers were subjected were "unacceptable".

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