(Business in Cameroon) - Civil servants are planning to go on strike from March 21 to 22, revealed Jean Marc Bikolo, President of the Central Union for Civil Servants (CSP) in a press conference on Saturday. For 48 hours, civil servants hope to paralyze work and force the state to listen to them.
The reinstating of salaries to the 1993 scale before the devaluation of the franc CFA and necessary adjustments linked to inflation unfortunately is not the concern of government to whom these worries have been submitted several times.
Among other worries CSP is putting forth is the revalorization of the minimum salary (SMIG) to be paid to a worker in Cameroon. It stands at 28,216 francs CFA per month, judged by trade unionists to be the lowest in Central Africa. In Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, or Chad the SMIG is between 100,000 to 150,000 francs CFA, according to Bikoko. CSP targets also family allowance that the government seems to be ignoring.
But, on the instruction of the head of State, Paul Biya, CSP and the government are in negotiations since May 14th last year when an ad hoc committee was set up after a meeting with the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Gregoire Owona. It was set up when government called CSP to the negotiation table after the union notified government of a looming strike from 16th to 18th May 2012. But, Jean Marc Bikoko thinks nothing has been done after six months.