Public Health Minister And OST / SANTE In War Over Call By Latter For Health Workers To Embark On Strike Action

The battle line has been drawn between the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, and OTS / SANTE (‘Organisation Syndicale des Travailleurs de la Sante’), which is the syndicate of public health workers in the country, that has called on workers of all State owned hospitals and other health facilities across the country, to embark on a strike action, starting September 28, 2024.

The planned strike action is contained in a communiqué that OST / SANTE issued on Thursday, September 12, 2024. Then on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachite, addressed a correspondence to all heads and public hospitals and other facilities of Category 1 – 6, denouncing the planned strike action and saying that the Law does not recognize OST / SANTE.

It should be noted that in a communiqué issued on September 12, 2024, OST/ SANTE recalled that the organization on July 17, 2024, presented a list of grievances of public health workers to Government. The syndicate stated that the workers have gone beyond the limit of their patience, and that if those grievances were not attended to, the health workers will be force to embark on a strike action. But OST/ SANTE regretted in the September 12 release that the Government has not resolve any of the problems that the syndicate posed.

 List Of Seven Grievances That Was Tabled By OST / SANTE

Some of grievances of health workers that were presented to Government by OST/ SANTE, Include:

• The exploitation of over 27,000 temporal workers in public hospitals and other health facilities without salaries, and without social protection.
• The non – payment of advancements and other advantages related to the salaries of health personnel. OST / SANTE refers to the salaries of health personnel in Cameroon as , “Les Salaires de Misere”, the salary of misery, considering that it is comparatively too small.
• The abusive dismissal of workers’ representatives
• Professional discrimination during different recruitment of health workers.
• Disciplinary transfers whose real intention by some senior officials in the Ministry of Public Health, are meant to push certain health personnel to resign.

Programme Of The Planned Strike Action

According to the programme of the strike action called by OST / SANTE, all health personnel will not embark on the strike action on the same day. According to the programme, all voluntary workers and those on internship at different public hospitals and other health facilities across the country will have to “abandon” work on September 28, 2024. On September 29, all contract workers in public health facilities will stop work.

Then on September 30, 2024, all nurses and medical doctors will embark on the strike action. All public health workers in the Centre Region will gather in front of the Ministry of Public Health in Yaounde, while those of the nine other Divisions will gather in front of the Regional Delegations of Public Health at the different regional headquarters. OST/SANTE says the daily gatherings at those sites will continue, until the amelioration of the precarious working condition of health workers in Cameroon by the Government.

Public Health Minister’s Reaction

Meanwhile in his aforementioned reaction to the planned strike action called by OST /SANTE, the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, said there was a release circulating on the social media containing a planned strike action by personnel of public health institutions from September 28, 2024, called by OST / SANTE.   ´”Je tiens a vous rappeler que ce syndicat n’a accune existence reconnue au sens de la loi”, that is, “I want to remind you that the law does not recognize the existence of this syndicate”, the minister said.

The Public Health Minister who made no allusion to the grievances of public health personnel raised by OST / SANTE, called on all Directors of public hospitals and heads of other public health facilities across  the country, to ensure that no personnel respects the call for a strike action, and that there should be serenity at work.

  OST / OTS Etc

Meanwhile it should be noted that though the Public Health Minister in his correspondence gives the impression that the September 12 communiqué by OST / SANTE is only on social media, there are evidences that the syndicate deposited a copy of the communiqué at the mail service of the ministry on that same September 12, and it was officially acknowledged with a stamp.

It should also be noted that though the Public Health Minister says the existence of OST/SANTE is not recognized by law, it was the same thing that the authorities of the Ministries of Secondary and Basic Education initially and repeatedly said about the syndicate, OTS, in the educational sector, until the Government was finally forced to sit down with OTS and talk.  Government prefers to discuss with those old syndicates or trade unions whose leaderships are allegedly corrupt. But teachers and health workers had come to realized that those old syndicates or trade unions were not actually serving their interest, but rather the selfish interest of the allegedly corrupt leaders.

Poor Working Conditions

Meanwhile, the prayer of The Mentor News is that the by  Minister of  Labour and Social Security, Gregoire Owona, and his colleague of Public Health, should try to dialogue with OST / SANTE to come to an understanding and avoid the strike. The public health sector is a very important sector in any country. Even if in Cameroon the government has not been treating health personnel well. Health personnel are poorly paid in Cameroon. OST / SANTE talks of “salary of misery”. This is the main reason why thousands of Cameroonian health workers continue to leave the country to work elsewhere, while thousands other Cameroonians that study medicine in foreign countries like Germany, do not want to return home.

A strike by public health personnel in a country is something that any responsible government will strive to avoid. The Cameroonian masses are already facing a lot of problems or difficulties to survive. If public hospitals and other health facilities were to be grounded by a strike action, the situation will be terrible. It is really unfortunate that the CPDM Government gives priorities in spending huge sums  of public funds on something like football, while the all – important health sector is neglected.