Memve’ele Dam Site: Workers protest

Work on the Memve'ele dam in Nyabizan, South Region of Cameroon, will be on hold temporarily from July 5, 2015 after a protest by the workers to demand better working conditions.

A strike notice submitted by the members of the Cameroonian Labour Confederation (CTC) on June 7, 2015 to the officials of the Chinese company called Sinohydro, in charge of the construction to consider their petition.

The workers made mention of unfavourabe working conditions such as sexual harassment, corruption, peddling, unfair dismissals, arbitrary arrests, beatings among and other assaults that usually occur on the site which is 70% complete according to official estimates.

The tension between the workers and officials of the Sinohydro Company was such that an emergency meeting was held on June 25, 2015 in Ebolowa and chaired by the Secretary General of the South Region, Thierry Kin-Nou Nana.

Last year the first misunderstanding between workers and employers on the Memve'ele site was settled by the Cameroonian Minister of Labour Site and Social Security, Grégoire Owona.