Repeated disagreements between employers and employees, the non-respect of human rights and the non-mastery of human rights requirements in jobsites has been under focus in Yaounde. Some 50 workers from the private sector together with experts from National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF) gathered in Yaounde yesterday April 17, 2012 to work on ways of bringing the former to understand the rules that bind them and their employers.
Opening the one-day workshop on behalf of the Chairman of NCHRF, Dr. Divine Chemunta Banda, the Chairperson of Working Group N° 2 on economic, Social and Cultural Rights at NCHRF, Barrister Eugène Balemaken, stressed that the violation of human rights in work places remains worrisome and the Commission will stop at nothing to make its voice heard as to the protection and promotion of the rights of workers by employers.
Details of complaints received and processed in 2009 by the protection unit of NCHRF show that out of grievances, 160 were basically on the violation of the rights of workers by employers, Balemaken explained, saying that it is against this backdrop that the Commission wants to instil a spirit of understanding and dialogue between employers and employees.
Knowing that only 30 percent of workers in Cameroon are aware of their rights according to studies carried out by an organisation, PAMODEC, Eugène Balemaken explained that it was necessary for the National Commission on Human Rights to teach private sector workers the fundamental principles of human rights.
