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Transfer of Expat Employee to another Workplace (Maputo)

In my article “Transfer of Employee to another workplace” I mentioned that the Labor Law provides a guarantee of irremovability of employees by prohibiting the employer to transfer him/her to another workplace, unless otherwise prescribed by law, in the employment contract or Collective labor regulation instruments. I have also discussed some types of transfer of an employee as well its formalities. That is the general regime. When it comes to expat employees working in Mozambique it should be considered the specific laws that rule the contracting of foreign citizens.

In Mozambique, the general regime for the contracting of foreign citizens is established in the Decree n° 55/2008, of December Protected content are special regimes for the mining and oil & gas sector as well as for the Industrial Free Zones) and there are two main regimes, namely the Quota regime and the Authorization/Outside Quota regime.

According to the abovementioned decree, the process to hire the expat employee must be submitted in the area where the foreign citizen is going to perform his/her activities. Automatically, the Work Permit and DIRE (Document for the Identification of Foreign Residents) must be requested in the same area.

With grounds on the reasons mentioned in the Labor Law, there can be a necessity to transfer the expat employee to another workplace. In that case, beside what I have discussed in my article “Transfer of Employee to another workplace” it should be considered the following:

A. Definitive Transfer
The definitive transfer of an expat employee is only allowed if it is based on the relocation of the whole company or a part of it.
In other situations, it should be necessary to submit the process of contracting of the employee in the area to which the company would like to transfer him/her as a new hiring. This is applicable for the Labor and Immigration authorities.

B. Temporary Transfer
The temporary transfer of an expat employee to another workplace can be based on productive reason, for example when the company is assigned to carry on activities included in the execution of a contract in an area that differs from the initial workplace of the expat employee.

It should be mentioned that the temporary transfer of an expat employee – as per the Ministry of Labor understanding – also includes the so called short duration work trips.

The communication of the temporary transfer of the expat employee to another workplace, with a detailed explanation that supports the transfer, is addressed to the local Director of Labor Department in the initial workplace and should have the following attachments:

• Copy of the Employment Contract;

• Copy of the approval of the contracting of the foreign citizen;

• Addendum to the employment contract where the identification of the employer and of the employee is exactly the same as in the employment contract and it is mentioned on detail the new workplace and the exact duration of the temporary assignment.

There is no need to communicate the labor authorities of the area where the expat employee is going to be temporary assigned since there is an internal communication within the Ministry of Labor. In the case of the Immigration authorities it is recommended to communicate them as soon as possible and attach a copy of the approval of the temporary transfer of the expat employee as well as the copy of the valid DIRE.

NOTE: The expat employee can only move to the new workplace once in possession of the approval of the temporary transfer, no matter if he/she has been hired under the Quota Regime or under the Authorization/Outside Quota Regime.

Thank you so much for your reading!

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Maputo Forum

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