Yaoundé—Employees
of the state-owned national telecoms operator; Cameroon Telecommunications
(CAMTEL) have threatened a strike action should authorities not meet their
demands amongst which is the payment of salaries and other benefits “as soon as
possible.”
In
a letter to the General Manager of the corporation, employees under the
umbrella of the National Syndicate of Communication (SYNACOM) have outlined ten
grievances which they say should be addressed else they will have no choice
than stop work.
Mouangue
Pierre Louis Charles president of SYNACOM said the decision to down their tools
is justified by the failure on the side of management to respect terms of a
recent memorandum of understanding between both parties.
“If
by October 22 nothing is done, we will disengage ourselves from whatever would
happen to the company,” Mouangue Pierre said in the notification letter to
CAMTEL management.
In
a release made public Tuesday, the corporation that prides itself as the
‘mother of telecommunications’ in Cameroon admitted it is broke as service
consumers have accumulated bills, “some of which span several months and cause
the company substantial loss of revenue.”
The
statement signed by Benjamin Gerard Assouzo’o, CAMTEL’s director of marketing
and communication said an extensive campaign has been launched throughout the
country for the forceful collection of the said debts.
“The
campaign involves employing all legal recourse including temporary suspension
of all voice and internet services,” the statement said, further explaining that
the suspended services will be restored upon payment of the arrears.
Besides
salaries and other employees’ benefits, we learnt from authoritative sources
within the state-owned national telecoms operator that the Cameroon Radio
Television (CRTV) had suspended broadcast of the corporation’s adverts as it
has also accumulated the broadcaster’s bills.
We
also learnt that the telecom company which was awarded a 15-year license for the
establishment and operation of a mobile telecoms network in the country in
September 2014 is yet to fully deploy its GSM services throughout the country
for want of financial resources.
By
Ndi Eugene Ndi
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