The Economic Impact of Tolerância de Ponto (ad hoc public holidays)
The Mozambican Labor Law provides for the concept of Tolerância de Ponto (TdP). These are ad hoc public holidays which must be declared by the Minister of Labor and which are to be declared and communicated with a minimum warning period of 48 hours. As a matter of practice the Minister consults with the tripartite labor committee (CCT) for approval when declaring TdP. However since the body is tripartite unions and government are able to out-vote the private sector meaning that TdP are generally declared even if the private sector opposes them. On the other hand, even when the business community is consulted through the CTA representative at CCT, the time given to respond is rarely sufficient to permit a wider consultation among the private sector.
As such a SPEED commissioned study aims to determine the economic impact of ad hoc unforeseen days off, in the context of current discussions on the same subject. The goal is to quantify the economic impact of these (both negative and positive) as to accurately assess the impact to the private sector in terms of productivity losses.
After the analysis (below) we concluded that:
That for each unforeseen day off, the Mozambican economy lost 48% of the daily GDP + (x).
This value was calculated using the sum of the average business earnings, plus salaries paid to employees, minus gains made in the tourism sector.
The formula that was used was:
Net loss = loss relating to turnover + losses related to paid wages - earnings in the tourism sector / Mozambique Daily GDP
(X) = the average turnover of small and medium-sized enterprises+ the contribution of the informal sector +The cost of lost business opportunity low productivity+ (+/-) 8% increase of GDP 2013/14.