By Henrique Almeida
LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's main public sector union said on Tuesday it might organise more street protests to demand higher pay for state workers if talks with the government fail to reach an agreement.
The CG-SILA union said the aim was to pressure the government to approve a salary increase of around 27 perecent instead of the 5.4 percent increase approved in April, its leader Jacinto Francisco told Reuters.
"We are thinking of carrying out more protests," said Jacinto.
"The three unions plan to unite forces in their fight for higher wages and meet with the government soon. It will all depend on the talks with the government".
But officials at the Ministry of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security claim the government cannot provide a higher salary increase because it needs to hire new workers for the nation's 290,000-strong public sector.
"Our budget only has the capacity to increase wages by 5.4 percent and one of the main reasons for this is the recruitment of new workers," Luis Machado, a director at the ministry, said on the state-owned Radio Nacional de Angola.
The Angolan government is expected to review its 2010 budget in coming weeks.
An estimated 16,000 public workers took to the streets on Saturday in Luanda in a peaceful protest to demand a higher wage increase in a country where average yearly inflation stood at 13.72 percent last year.
Angola is struggling to meet certain demands by the International Monetary Fund that will let it continue to tap into a $1.4 billion loan agreed with the IMF in November.
One IMF demand is that Angola settle over $2 billion in arrears with foreign construction firms operating in the African nation. Some public sector workers have also complained at not receiving their salaries on time.
Angola's Economy Minister Manuel Nunes Junior said on April 28 that his government had begun paying the overdue sums last month. The announcement came after oil prices more than doubled in the last month to over $80 per barrel.
Angola rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer and depends on oil for over 90 percent of its income.
Reuters Africa
