Sad saga of unpaid CDC workers.

Last week, striking workers in Tiko in rage displayed placards in front of the CDC General Manager, Franklin Ngoni Njie, indicating that they were being owed up to 31 months of salary arrears dating back to 2023.

A video trending in the social media shows a nurse of one of the Corporation’s health facilities, facing the General Manager with their bitter truth: “We over suffer because six people run swifts. We work like slaves...no gloves, no plaster. We are slaves, we are saves. At times we work in darkness, remove money from our pockets to buy bulbs...You go home not paid. Are we slave?”

Without an answer from a visibly calm General Manager, the same video showed a spokesperson for the rubber tappers taking the cue to state that: “In the history of CDC tappers are not paid by crumbs. Now they are paying the tapper on crumbs, not even on weight...we want to be paid by hours. Now a tapper will work and unable to have pay. You see their pay slip, work and l leave not able to have 40 000. From today, if we are not paid by hour tappers will not go to the field again”.

A helpless manager in the midst of the striking workers conceded that management had failed to communicate effectively with employees about the corporation’s financial situation and the persistent delays in salary payments.

He added that some of the rubber leaving the Corporation’s plantations was being used to offset previously incurred expenses rather than generating immediate revenue for salary payments.

His frank explanation was immediately met with resistance from sections of the crowd, with several workers shouting back: "That one is a lie".

Later in a statement issued on June 23, 2026 from its head office in Bota, Limbe, the General Manager confirmed receiving complaints from some workers citing salary arrears dating from 2023 to 2026, as well as inconsistent monthly payments.

He said management had since engaged workers through a series of meetings, including discussions held at the General Manager’s office on June 22 this year and a broader meeting in Tiko the next day.

During the sessions, workers detailed their concerns, while management outlined the corporation’s current financial challenges. The CDC acknowledged the hardship faced by employees, attributing the situation to limited financial resources affecting operations.

It assured workers that efforts were being made to stabilize the company and ameliorate their working conditions.While appealing for patience, he emphasised that a return to full operations is key to restore steady salary payments and clearing outstanding arrears as production improves.

Regarded as patrimony of the people of the North West and South West Regions, the CDC has suffered devastating setbacks from separatist fighters claiming as one of their strategies to bleed the government economically.

Their heinous action severely disrupted plantation activities, resulting in huge financial losses and repeated government bailout interventions.

Last year the company posted a loss of 20 billion FCFA, one year after the state cancelled   59 billion FCFA in tax and social debt that temporarily boosted the company’s accounts.

An audit report by Forvis Mazars Cameroon pointed to continuing structural problems the company encounters. 

The auditors noted that its production in 2025 was below budget targets due to repeated “ghost town” shutdowns imposed by armed separatist groups in the South West Region, where CDC predominantly operates most of its plantations.

The audit report also cited insecurity linked to the 2025 election period, along with attacks in the Ekona and Likomba areas that led to the killing of field assistants.

The Guardian Post takes not that with the drastic lull in separatist activities that targeted the Corporation, it has through state-led financial restructuring and improved plantation security been enjoying gradual recovering from the socio-political unrest that severely crippled its operations for some five years.

There have also been a bailout from the state to clear salaries arrears and some taxes. The million dollar question is why the corporation is still owing workers for years?

What happened to the cheques brandished even on bill boards claiming to be payment of debts owed the poor workers?

Why is it that labourers in the field toiling under sun and rain and producing, rubber, banana and palm oil that fetch the money are owed for years while the management in their air-conditioned offices in Bota keep them without pay, giving preference to themselves and contractors?

Perhaps, as some of the protesters have said in the past the end of the sad saga of workers of the corporation should be a renovation of management.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3832 of Monday June 29, 2026