<p></p><p>Maputo — Mediation by the Labour Ministry has brought to an end a strike by workers at the Condor Caju cashew processing factory at Anchilo, on the outskirts of the northern Mozambican city of Nampula. <br></p> <p>The 960 workers of Condor Caju went on strike from 21 to 24 April, demanding higher wages and the immediate removal of the factory manager.The Centre for Labour Mediation and Arbitration (COMAL) and the General Inspectorate of Labour, which are both Labour Ministry bodies, mediated, and persuaded the workers to return to work on Monday.According to a Labour Ministry press release workers and management reached an agreement “to solve the problems raised by the workforce, including the demand to dismiss the company manager, since they regard him as being the cause of the malaise in the company”. <br></p> <p>The strikers had also complained about an excessive work load, lack of medical care in the event of work accidents, and failure of the company to provide them with basic information, including copies of their contracts, and information on their social security payments.The strikers failed in their demand for wages above the rise in the statutory minimum wage decreed by the government, but COMAL and the IGT promised that they would monitor the situation to ensure that irregularities detected in the factory, particularly those which put the workers' health at risk, will be corrected.The two Labour Ministry bodies urged both the employer and the workers to respect the rights and duties of both sides as laid down in Mozambican labour legislation, in order to avoid future conflicts arising “because of lack of dialogue”.<br></p><p></p>