Cameroon workers forum demand SMIG augmentation to XAF 100,000
By Charity Ngingyu
The Cameroon Workers Forum(CAWOF), an embodiment of various workers’ unions in Cameroon has called on the government to augment the Minimum Salary wage to 100,000 FCFA.
They made the call while reacting to the government’s recent decision to increase the prices of fuel in the market. In a release on February 2, the government announced that the cost of petrol will surge from FCFA 730 to FCFA 840 starting from February 3, 2024.
In a communiqué signed on February 8, 2023, CAWOF noted with regret that the increases are in addition to the “tax constraints imposed by the 2024 finance law”.
Expounding on the reason for their outcry, they lamented that the measures to increase the prices of petrol taken “without, consultation, negotiations or consultation of the social partners,” are imposed on workers without concomitant and adequate measures.
The Association went ahead to blame the hike in prices of petrol on the non-reconstruction of SONARA since the fire incident that devasted the oil company in 2019.
In this light, they have demanded a ” minimum wage of 100,000 FCFA a month, 30% increase in public sector salaries and the immediate revision of salary scales within the framework of collective agreements… the revaluation of old age pensions up to 30% in all sectors and the harmonization of the calculation ceiling up to 01 million 100 thousand FCFA,” the release partly read.
CAWOF has threatened to call on workers to mobilize for a general strike in case the government resorts to giving a deaf ear to their plight.
It should be recalled that on February 2023, the government of Cameroon increased the minimum wage of workers from 36.270 FCFA to 41.875FCFA. An amount deemed insignificant by CAWOF, considering the recent price readjustments.
