Tole Tea Estate: 110 former workers die after four years struggle

According to this week’s edition of The Rambler Newspaper, the former workers say the government tricked them into appending their signatures on a document which created an ad hoc committee which looked into their problems but has not brought forth workable solutions.

The Rambler reveals that one of the protesters a certain Andrew Moki who worked at tea estate for 44 years got just a meager amount of 220,00FRS as severance pay; he later died two years ago.

A majority of these former workers of Tole tea estate which was sold to Cameroon tea estate, have been home for four years now, many are gradually dying but the government which laid them off after privatizing the company is yet to compensate them.

The ex-employees of Tole tea say the government fooled them through a fake strategy known as dialogue. The ad hoc committee was given 9 months to propose measures to take but it is now four years nothing has filtered out of the committee.

Nanje Daniel a former worker told The Rambler that, “ We have realized that we were fooled by Gregoire Owona Minister of Labor and Social Security who asked us to go to our houses while we create a committee to solve our problems. I can remember I left the Labor Office of March 8, 2012 and the committee began work on March 12.

The former workers are reportedly owed some 2.2 billion francs.