2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - Cameroon

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 4

Government seeks to undermine education unions:

Roger Kaffo Fokou, General Secretary of the Syndicat national autonome de l'enseignement secondaire (SNAES), the independent union for secondary education workers, reported that in July 2014 the education unions were facing sanctions. He warned that grass roots unions were being dismantled, and that the government was favouring unions that had government authorisation, giving them financial support. Earlier in the year the unions had been involved in a series of strikes over the government's slowness to deliver on promised improvements in working conditions.

Plantation workers arrested for going on strike:

Workers at the Hevecam plantation went on strike on 14 December during a dispute over pay. The workers were seeking a 100 per cent pay rise and a thirteenth month annual bonus. The company offered between 50 and 55 per cent, depending on their salary grade, and no annual bonus. By 20 December there was still no solution in sight, and gendarmes were patrolling the plantations to keep an eye on the strikers. 127 workers were arrested by the gendarmes and held in custody in Kribi for two days. They were released on 25 December. Further to negotiations an agreement was reached, meeting most but not all of the workers' demands.

Three transport union leaders arrested for calling strike; one sentenced to prison:

Jean Collins Ndefossokeng, president of the National Union of Land Transport Sector Employees (SYNESTER), and Joseph Deudie, president of the National Union of Professional Drivers and Transport Workers of Cameroon (SYNACPROTCAM) were arrested on 16 January 2015. They were detained by the Mobile Intervention Group of Yaoundé, the security forces, for 'advocating crime, sedition and terrorist activity' after distributing leaflets promoting a planned strike.

Cameroon's new terrorist law, No. 2014/028 of 23 December 2014, was introduced largely in response to the activities of Boko Haram. The union leaders warned that the authorities were trying to assimilate union activities with terrorist action.

The two unions had planned a strike on 19 January, postponed from 5 January, to protest against changes imposed by state-approved insurance companies, and against fuel price rises. In organising the strike, the unions had followed all Cameroon's legal procedures.

On 19 January, Fioko Patrice, from the National Union of Land Transport Sector Employees (SYNESTER) union, was arrested, tried and sentenced to six months in prison in Cameroon on the same charges after distributing leaflets promoting the strike.

Jean Collins Ndefossokeng and Joseph Deudié were released on 30 January, having been held for 15 days under the provisions of the new anti-terrorist law. Fioko Patrice was released on 27 February, having served six weeks of his six-month sentence, after widespread union protests, including an international trade union campaign. In early March it was announced that all charges against the three trade unionists had been dropped.

Anti-union harassment at bank:

The Free Trade Union Confederation of Cameroon (Union des Syndicats Libres du Cameroon – USLC) reported that members of the financial workers' union FESYLTEFCAM at the multinational ATTIJARIWAFA bank regularly suffer verbal harassment by management, and that there had been several cases in which the union representative was moved to a different post, without informing the labour inspector. The harassment has been so persistent that the union is thinking of withdrawing from the next union representation elections due to be held in January 2016.

The USLC also reports that there is blatant discrimination in the banking sector in general, with employers usually preferring to deal with only one union and ignoring the rest.

Delays in transferring dues to union:

The Free Trade Union Confederation of Cameroon, USLC, says employers often delay transferring unions dues, deducted through the check-off system, to the unions, thereby starving them of funds. It also says there has been interference and manipulation in union elections by employers, affecting most recently health workers in Mfoundi, and construction workers employed by Chinese companies.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.