CTE Ndu Crisis Rages on: Baba Danpullo is adamant

El Hadj Baba Danpullo Has Failed To Adhere To The Terms of The Tripartite Meeting

By Tayu Innocent in Bamenda

Workers of the CTE Ndu continue to stay away from work following what they describe as the non-respect of the tripartite agreement terms by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cameroon Tea Estate CTE, El Hadj Baba Ahmadou Danpullo.

Talking to The Entrepreneur correspondent in Bamenda some CTE workers whose names are withheld, said the management has failed to comply with some of the decisions arrived at during the tripartite meeting in Yaounde last December. For example, article 1 of the press release that came out after the meeting in Yaounde on December 6, 2006, signed by the parties concerned amongst whom was the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Professor Robert Nkili stated that “………… workers dues were calculated in conformity with the labor laws and regulations in force…” and “that any cases of contestation will be examined case by case by the SDO for Donga Mantung, the representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and the management of CTE."

According to the workers, the above article has not been respected as workers received what they claim is only part of their dues. They also complain strongly that the management has spies who monitor workers. For that reason, some of them who dread being arrested are in hideouts in nearby villages, believing that their lives and property are threatened.

Following what El Hadj Baba said during the tripartite meeting in Yaounde, workers were not expecting to receive only part of their dues as he reiterated that he has always been willing to pay the right dues to workers and that money is always available. According to the workers, real social dialogue, which is an indespensible tool for social peace, is yet to take its course since management cannot pay the right dues owed the workers. Workers are therefore determined to go back to work only when their dues are calculated and paid to them. This is simply one of the many grievances, which according to them were not resolved or wrongly implemented after the Yaounde tripartite meeting.

Sources close to the management of CTE report that the CTE will not comply with the sum of 3 billion FCFA being claimed by the striking workers, which according to the management is far more than what CTE used in purchasing the entire Tole, Djuttisa and Ndu Tea Estates. In all, the current CTE crisis in Ndu has led to the death of one person, a handful of others wounded and loss of property including a number of houses burnt to ash.

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Comments

[Aminu Hamza Ahmed]

workers cte when ever ther is problems there must be solution, this old man is really trying his possible best, to that hepay your entitlment but it has to be through dialogue not by violence