(Business in Cameroon) - Célestin Hermann Tsambou, CEO of mass transportation operator Stecy S.A, is summoned to appear before the labor inspectorate on July 23, 2021, in Yaounde. The executive will face its former employees who, on July 8, 2021, referred to the regional delegation of the Ministry of Labor in the Centre, accusing the mass transport company of unfair dismissal.

Indeed, after two strikes organized in April and May 2021 to demand the payment of their salary arrears, a refund of their social security contributions, and the issuance of employment contracts, some of the employees were served redundancy letters for vandalism, insubordination, infringement of strike rules, sequestration, damage to people's property and threats.

This executive-employees dispute will further affect the social climate already tense in the mass transport company because of a partnership between the Portuguese consortium Eximtrans Sarl/Irmaos Mota and the urban community Yaoundé. Because of that partnership, the market share of Stecy S.A started shrinking, causing financial difficulties for the company to such an extent that its buses are almost not in operation.

Furthermore, in a release signed on May 26, 2021, and published on June 2, 2021, Minister of Transports Jean Ernest Ngallé Bibehe Massena, accused the transport company of facilitating the operations of an unapproved operator by leasing its facilities to that operator. “Once informed of the gross violation of the partnership contract between the State of Cameroon and Stecy S.A (…), the Minister of Transports contacted Stecy S.A’s CEO ordering him to immediately stop the illegal company from operating from the premises of its company. However, despite this call to order, Tourismo Express is still carrying out its operations unabated, in contravention of the enforceable laws,” the release reads.  In the same release, the Minister of Transports banned Tourismo Express “without prejudice to possible legal proceedings.”

BRM