Absentee Workers: Phenomenal persist in public, private sectors

At a time when many Cameroonians are looking for jobs, it is surprising to note that some persons who are fully employed have abandoned their duty posts for reasons unknown to their employers. Each day through announcements in print and audio-visual media, heads of enterprises, secretaries general of ministries as well as human resource directors keep inviting workers who have abandoned their duty posts to report to work or face sanctions provided for by the law.

There is no issue wherein the national news daily, Cameroon Tribune, for example does not carry an announcement inviting a worker who has been absent from his duty post to report back immediately. Recent amongst such announcements is one from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. In the communiqué, it was clearly stated that the said worker, who is a Senior Contract Officer, in the Department of Low-cost Housing has been absent from his duty post since June 2015.

The worker was called to immediately report to his department upon the publication of the announcement and if he fails to do so, he would be sanctioned as stated by the law. Another of such announcements is one from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in which the minister through a communiqué invites a Posts and Telecommunications Controller who has been absent from his jobsite since January 4, 2016, to immediately report at the Department of General Affairs of the ministry upon hearing the announcement or else he would be considered as irregularly absent from work. In the same communiqué, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications pleads with whoever reads the announcement and knows the concerned to kindly inform him.

With such recurrent invitations from employers in the public and private sectors, labour experts say there is a law that should be applied when workers are irregularly absent from their duty posts. While many people think that the public service is a no-man's-land, the Chief of Personnel and Refresher Courses in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ayang Hadidja Tekao says the General Status of the Public Service has spelled out what should be done when a worker is irregularly absent from his jobsite.

She explained that if a worker is absent without a valid permission and cannot be reached through his/her phone for one month, that worker is considered irregularly absent from duty and can be dismissed from the public service after going through the disciplinary council at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms. This is stipulated in Article 104 and 121 of the General Status of the Public Service.

Talking about contract workers and those in the private sector, Hadidja Tekao noted that besides a 1978 Presidential text, the Collective Convention of the company as well as the Labour Code spell out procedures to punish workers who are irregularly absent from work.