It would be better to talk about slavery than work in Paul Biya’s Cameroon. So many abuses by employers. Unpaid wages (5, 8, 10 months of unpaid wages), unfair dismissals, these are the ordeals faced by many private sector workers in our country. You go to work at 7:00 am to finish at 9:00 pm, Monday to Saturday, for a miserable salary. Work without holidays or leave; and when leave is granted, your salary is cut for the number of days absent, which does not correspond to what you would have earned if you were present.
Read more 5 Practical Ways to Use AI to Better Understand Betting on 1xBet
Faced with a state that does not protect, workers can only endure such abuses. Faced with a complicit state, workers are left to fend for themselves. Corruption has diverted the state from its function of protecting employees in companies. There is a labor code that many organizations do not respect. This non-compliance with the labor code benefits labor inspectors who take “gombo” from corrupt employers, where they are better known than among employees. Yet these inspectors should be present with employees to learn about their working conditions, to ensure that employers respect the labor code. They don’t care about the abuses employees suffer or the poor conditions in which they work.
What does the Ministry of Labor do? Nothing at all. This ministry is only known to Cameroonians on this day. The day when, instead of discussing employment issues as is done in serious countries, we are told about Labor Day. One wonders what we are celebrating, work or slavery? What do the unions do? Apart from a few who fight against the dictatorship of the leaders, many (especially the leaders) are complicit in the misery of workers, also complicit in the shift from “International Workers’ Day” to “Labor Day”.
What about compatriots who run small businesses or work in small trades? Should we talk about their misery in the face of corrupt state agents? Should we talk about the harassment they regularly suffer? Taxes here, fees there, always for the call-box or the hair salon? Meanwhile, we cannot work because of repeated power outages.
Read more Freedom of the press: Cameroon ranked 133rd out of 180 in 2026
Meanwhile, in the public and parapublic sectors, there are people who receive salaries without working, individuals who have two, three, four, ten jobs all very well paid, fictitious jobs. Sometimes these are people whose daily work consists only of playing cards on desktop computers, mediocre, incompetent individuals with fake diplomas who end up as civil servants to the detriment of the competent. How do they manage this? Through nepotism or favoritism. One might say there is a state structure to fight this banditry called SIGIPES, another budget-consuming structure.
In short, work in our country is a real ordeal. It does not keep us away from vice, boredom, and need. At least for those who have it despite the flaws I have just mentioned. What about the majority of young people who are unemployed and idle?
Séverin Hyacinthe BATSOK, teacher-researcher
