SG Cameroun Bank Staff Resume Work

The decision follows negotiations between the Littoral Regional Delegation of Labour and Social Security and the aggrieved workers.

The doors to the head office and agencies of the Société Générale Cameroun (SG Cameroun) in Douala were opened as early as 8 am and continued throughout yesterday. The counters played their routine task of receiving clients, as employees showed no visible signs of grievances.

Although none of the staff was willing to disclose the content of their negotiation with the administration that held behind closed doors in Bonanjo on Thursday, June 26, one of them said, "Well, we held the dialogue. The story is long. We still have a rope to draw." More than 100 employees of the private and foreign bank stopped work from June 25 to 28, and only resumed yesterday despite Thursday's dialogue with officials of the Regional Delegation of Labour and Social Security in Douala.

Staff of all agencies of the financial institution in the country were on the war path against the reduction in their pay scales, among other things. In Bonanjo, Douala, where the bank's headquarters is situated, the aggrieved employees all turned out in black clothes and thronged the premises throughout the protest. Besides, they protested the reduction in the staff strength through what they called "unjustified layoffs"; denial of their say in salary fixing; and outsourcing.

They saw the reduction in salaries as an attempt by the management to make bank jobs unattractive. Other grievances included acts of moral harassment, the illegal dismissal of one of their colleagues on June 16, 2014, based on what they call "a misleading motive" as well as a host of others earmarked for dismissal.

Also, repression of employees who want to protest their rights, attack of national interests justified in speeches delivered in successive occasions and salary reduction, among many other things, were also cited. As a result, the workers accused the two-year old Managing Director of incompetence and wished that he should be replaced. Efforts to get the views of the bank's Managing Director were futile as at press time.