The employees are demanding the payment of salaries, which have been outstanding for 16 months. They are also demanding the regularisation and payment of their contributions to the National Social Insurance Fund (NSIF), the payment of family allowances; the payment of the rights of retirees and the deceased; the payment of union dues; and medical coverage for staff.

All these demands are contained in the strike notice filed on 24 June with the regional delegation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for the Centre region. These claims are brandished by strikers since this morning at the headquarters of Matgenie in Yaounde.

“In June and October 2021, we suspended the strike verbally on two occasions, thanks to the promises made by our technical supervisor (the Ministry of Public Works, editor’s note) and the hierarchy of our company,” wrote the staff representatives in the notice that SBBC consulted.

According to the delegates, the absence of the announced measures has had a negative impact on the employees. As a result, some employees are unable to meet their basic and vital needs. Others have not been able to send their children to school, have been evicted from their homes for unpaid rent or have died for lack of medical care.

This walkout, they say, is a way of calling on the authorities to do something about it, since the many meetings with the general management have not produced any solution to the crisis. “The accumulated suffering of the staff continues and we note a very significant deterioration of our professional problems, proof that our salvation can only come if we turn to the government,” says the staff delegates.

They are appealing to the President of the Republic, as can be seen on one of the strikers’ placards. Difficulties with salary payments are commonplace at Matgenie. The former director general of Matgenie, Désiré Abogo Ntang, justified this situation by an “incompatibility” between salary expenses, personal expenses and the company’s income.