OST Santé Response to Minister Manaouda: Calls for Justice in Healthcare!

OST Santé Response to Minister Manaouda: Calls for Justice in Healthcare!

The president of OST Santé, the Union of Health Workers in Cameroon, delivered a strong speech in response to the Minister of Public Health, Dr. MANAOUDA Malachi, who labeled their Union as illegal and advised health workers to maintain peace while working. He pledges to persist in uniting healthcare professionals for a crucial dialogue on their rights and the planned strike on the 28th. This initiative is not solely focused on the well-being of healthcare workers but also symbolizes a wider campaign for high-quality healthcare for all citizens of Cameroon.

According to the Unionist, healthcare professionals in Cameroon are united by a shared commitment to deliver quality care.

"It’s our passion and calling, not just a job," the president asserted.

However, this dedication is being tested by leadership that appears to undervalue their contributions. Many healthcare workers feel their roles are perceived through a lens of desperation rather than a commitment to saving lives.

The Frustration of Unanswered Pleas

Despite repeated attempts to communicate their grievances to the government, including submissions to the Minister of Public Health, healthcare workers have met with silence.

We have previously submitted petitions and pleas to the authorities, but no response has been received, the president lamented.

Instead, the Minister has publicly questioned the legality of OST Santé, implying that the union is not legitimate.

However, as outlined by Decree 92 and Article 11 of the Labor Code, the union has met all legal requirements for recognition.

Our right to unionize does not depend on anyone’s authorization, emphasized the president.

After 30 days without a response from the union registrar, the union's legitimacy is legally established, yet the Minister's dismissive stance continues to undermine their efforts.

The Current Challenges Facing Healthcare Workers

Healthcare professionals face an array of challenges, including unpaid salaries, lack of job security, and inadequate working conditions. Many are forced to work as temporaries without access to social security, making it difficult to sustain their livelihoods. "We are frustrated by leaders who do not respect or value us", the president remarked, highlighting the struggles many endure daily.

Despite some negotiations with government commissions, promises made have largely gone unfulfilled.

We have seen some progress, such as the signing of advances and promises of recruitment, but these promises have not materialized, the president noted.

The core demands remain clear: fair wages, decent working conditions, and acknowledgment of their rights.

The Impending Strike: A Last Resort

The upcoming strike is framed as a last resort in the fight for dignity, respect, and improved working conditions.

The Minister's attempts to intimidate us are unacceptable, the president declared firmly.

Healthcare workers refuse to be silenced or overlooked. The strike is not just a stand for their rights but a cry for justice that resonates with every healthcare worker in the country.

In a bold move, the union's leadership has indicated readiness to pursue legal action against the Minister for defamation, further underscoring their commitment to proving the union’s legitimacy.

"This is not just our fight but a fight for every healthcare worker suffering under the current system," the president stressed.

A Call to Unity

As the strike date approaches, the message is clear: healthcare professionals must stand united.

Let us stand united in this struggle, for ourselves, for our colleagues, and for all Cameroonians who depend on us for quality healthcare, the president urged.

This movement is about ensuring that healthcare workers receive the respect, recognition, and working conditions they deserve.

The time for action is now. Healthcare professionals across Cameroon are encouraged to join this crucial fight to ensure their voices are heard and their rights upheld. Together, they can advocate for a better future for healthcare in Cameroon—one that honors their dedication and commitment to saving lives.

Full Address Transcript

Good evening, good evening. We are going to start soon. We need everyone to connect.

We are going to start. We are going to start. We are going to answer to many questions that are asked to the people of health that we are tonight.

That's it. I want people to connect and share because tonight we are going to share, we are going to speak. Tonight we are going to speak.

I believe by the grace of God that things are going to happen. That's it. We are going to start soon.

We are going to start soon. In fact, we are going to speak. We are going to speak about the strike that is going to start from the 28th.

The strike that is going to start from the 28th. We are also going to speak about how we are going to lead this strike. We are going to speak about the strike of the Minister of Public Health.

The strike of the Minister of Public Health. We are going to speak about it because the fight that we are leading is not only for us, but for all Cameroonians. It's for all Cameroonians.

It's for our children. It's for our families. It's for all these people that we are fighting for because to transmit quality care we need to have a certain patience, a certain gift.

And by the grace of God, we have this gift. God blessed us with this gift. And we care.

We don't care because we are given money. We care because we love our job. We care because we appreciate giving quality care to Cameroonians.

But we are perfectly disappointed by the behaviour of those who lead us. Because those who lead us think we are people who don't have brains. Because that's what they think.

They think we are people who don't have brains. They think we are in this job because we are hungry. No, it's not because we are hungry.

We are in this job because we want to save lives. And we believe that to save lives we need to be in the best working conditions. We can't say we are going to save lives when we are suffering.

It's really very difficult. It's really very difficult. Dear comrades, we launched a prayer for the sick.

It's been more than a month now. A prayer for the sick. And until today, we have not received a response from the Minister of Public Health and even the government.

Before that, we established a plea where we asked for the authorities and what was deposited. But to date, we have not received any response. We said we need to give the government the opportunity to give us, to support us, to solve our problems.

But we realized that until now, nothing has been done about the sick in Cameroon. We realized that until now, nothing has been done. Nothing has been done about the sick in Cameroon.

Well, there is a cycle. I will start with this cycle. The Minister of Public Health says that OST Santé he even wrote OTS because it's not even OST Santé.

He wrote OTS. He says that this union is not legal. The question I ask is does the Minister even know what enriches the legality of a union? We must understand that the terms that define the legality of a union are in the Decree 92 on the basis of labor.

If you read Article 11, everything is well detailed in this article. Everything is very well detailed. At the level of Article 11 of the Labor Code.

We knew in 2023 we had it was 2022 we had submitted our request for registration. We must understand that we do not need authorization for this union constitution. We do not need authorization of someone.

We do not need authorization. What happens is that to form a union you you you fulfill the conditions that you are asked for. There is a file that is made.

You submit the file and the law says that that the union registrar who is the boss his role is to register the union. His role is not to give us the union's authorization. That is to say that the union's schedule is not there to give authorization.

It is there just to register. That is to say that it was realized that we had brought a file. The file is complete.

So we submit this file. And we did this job. We had submitted this file.

We decided to submit this file. And we had the receipt of this file that we submitted. But some time later the union registrar by his service made us understand that he did not want the name of OTS.

We are asked to change our name and to put OST Health. We said okay, okay. We will no longer put OTS.

We are going to put OST Health. So those who wrote in the encyclopedia wrote OTS Health. It is not OTS.

Our union movement is OST Health. Organization of health workers So we had submitted our registration certificate which we had received a discharge. Except that the law gives the union registrar 30 days to answer.

Except that the union registrar answered us 9 months later. And the law says Article 11 of the labor code Law 92 of the labor code says that after 30 days the union is reputed to be effective. It is in this perspective that the OST Health union has become a union.

We had started to work. We are even involved in discussions in the government commission because the problem was at the level of the primacy. They arrived and they said that we do not need OST Health because we are not yet a union.

We had brought the proof that we are a union. And the prime minister asked us to be involved in the commission. This is how OST Health, before the union registrar answered us, has become a union.

I hope we understand each other very well. So we had the vote of the prime minister, the head of the government, who got involved. You will see the circular.

Even on my Facebook page there is the circular of the prime minister and the commission in charge of solving the health problem that we had raised yesterday. We had already participated in many strikes. This strike here is only the 1st strike.

Now what is happening? The health minister, when he saw that the prime minister has validated, he understood us. He told us that we are now considered as a recognized union. Except that some time later, because they understood that we are OST Health.

We are not like other people who are no longer in office. They are union presidents who are no longer in office. They are union presidents who are not OST Health, but who want to fight for the OST Health which is still in office.

Except that I am in office. And the problems we are facing are the problems that my comrades and I are facing every day. It was then that we started to raise the problems of our advances that were not paid.

Our advances. Do you remember? There were more than 40,000 advances that were not signed. It was then that we led this fight and the OST Health started to sign advances.

When you see that the advances are not paid, it is because at the OST Health level, they had accumulated, they were not signed by the advances to the health personnel. So we had to leave the scream of not being able to follow your advance file. This is the first fight that we led.

We posed the problem of temporary. We posed the problem of temporary. At the time, we had more than 33,000 temporary health personnel who worked in health training without any social security, without salary.

We started to say we have to recruit them. We started to lead this fight and we also led the fight on the reduction of public funding of so-called contractual and decision-making personnel. Because we think that work is equal, salary is equal.

You can't have people who are functional. For example, a healthcare worker who is functional has three times the salary of a decision-making healthcare worker. And you have one who is temporary, not even, we give him 10,000 francs a month, sometimes 5,000 francs, sometimes 3,000.

We call it a taxi driver. And we are in this precariousness since. We suffer and we beg.

We said that we still need to seize the governmental instance. The Prime Minister trusted us. He put us in the commission ad hoc.

We knew how to work. The results, we had a first report that was given. We realized until today, in principle, the first results, we will have the first recruitment from January of this year.

We realized that since January we have not received any results. And so we decided for us now to restart. It is then that other comrades, other health people came and joined us.

We worked together on a plea that we filed at the level of the Public Health Minister, at the level of the Presidency, my comrades filed to tell the governmental instance that we are suffering, that we are suffering, that we are begging, that we can no longer bear. Today, the Public Health Minister, who never wanted to solve our problems. Every time we are threatened by a death wall, he reminds us that we are not legal.

The first time he grabbed it. The Public Health Minister grabbed the DGSN. He grabbed the DGSN.

I'm going to let you listen the voice of the DGSN. He grabbed the DGSN to make him understand that we are not a union. The DGSN called us.

We were called at the level of the DGSN. At the level of the DGSN, we left with the documentation because it is time to say that we are not legal. We are an organization that is not legal.

We said, okay, okay. We are going to go to the Judicial Instance. That's where we're going to prove who is legal and who is not.

That's it. We're going to listen a little bit. We're going to listen a little bit because we went there.

at the level of CEDS and at the level of DGSN. You know, and I realized, there was no question that we were closing down and everything else, no. And that's how we continued to work as a union.

It's been almost a year today that I was called to DGSN, that I was called to CEDS. The Minister of Public Health today, you will see in his correspondence, he says, he asks that the health personnel continue to work in serenity. I said, how? Is the Minister of Public Health in Cameroon? In what serenity is the health personnel going to work? He says that our union is not legal.

There is no proof that our union is not legal. He asked us, we gave the Minister of Public Health all the documentation, all the documentation that proves that we are a legal union. And we told the Minister of Public Health that if he thinks that we are not legal, then he is filing a complaint against us.

He just filed a complaint. The law says that the one who presents himself as a union, the one who presents himself as a union does not have any judicial merit. Except that until today, he has not come to prove that we are not a union.

So, in fact, he wants to prevent us from carrying out our claims. He writes, he says that the health personnel continue to work in serenity. How can a personnel who does not have a salary work in serenity? Mr. Minister, why are you so mean? Why are you mean? What kind of meanness was that? You are asking a personnel who does not have a salary, no social security, to continue to work in serenity.

You are asking a personnel whose advance payments you do not pay, whose wages you do not pay, to continue to work in serenity. But how? You even intend to manifest our discontent. There are still guns on the national level that allow us to say that we are tired, that we can no longer.

Do you think we like to say today that we can't? We can't because it's not right, Mr. Minister. We can't because we are suffering. Our children don't go to school.

There are comrades who sell drugs in hospitals. There are comrades who ride a motorcycle before coming to work. There are people who come to do business in the hospital.

Those who don't come to do it are forced to get sick. Faced with this observation, we say that we can no longer. Do you want to turn us into thieves? We don't want that.

That's what we don't want. That's why we say, Mr. Minister, that we are going to stop. From the age of 28, we are going to stop.

We are going to stop saying that we can no longer. Give us a good salary. You refuse to give us a good salary.

What serenity! There are officials who are threatened. They called me, they are threatened. We threaten them.

They risk losing their thumbs if the staff strikes. So you want to keep the staff enslaved. During this time, you eat.

During this time, you are there, you send your children to Europe. We continue to suffer. We are not recruited.

Last year, we asked 10 infirmaries. 10 infirmaries. Who do you take us for? How do you think we're going to live? And the minister asks us to start working in serenity.

What serenity, Mr. Minister? Are you human? Is this minister inhuman? I wonder if this minister is human. What serenity! Or guys, we have comrades who can't even eat. Comrades who walk to get to work.

To come and give the best of themselves. For the quality of care. And you still say to work in serenity.

What serenity! Really, dear comrades. When we don't deceive ourselves. Health care is beautiful and legal.

Those who think that health care is not legal, those who seize judicial instances. We are going to respond. In fact, we filed a complaint.

We made a direct citation. To the syndicate. Because he defamed our union.

We are the court in this regard. And I believe that we are going to seize, in the voice of the Lord, the Minister of Public Health, for defamation of our union. Because we can't accept that people try to do everything.

We are not in a country where there is no law. We are not in a country where everyone does what he wants. The minister is not above the law.

The minister is not above the law. He who speaks of legality. He is not above the law.

Well, dear comrades, they are afraid. They are afraid of our anger. They are afraid of our anger.

Because if we get angry. If we get angry for a day, two days, they are afraid of our anger. But instead of the Minister of Public Health, because he is already panicking, because he is afraid, because he is trembling.

Instead of calling his staff, and trying to listen to the sufferings of his staff. Instead of calling his staff to ask him what is wrong, how can we solve these problems. He decides to go to war.

He decides to go to war. The minister decided to go to war with his staff. As the minister came to fight with his staff.

He came to fight with us. He came to fight with his staff. We are not here to fight.

We are not here to fight. We are not even strong because we don't even eat. We are not strong.

We are here to tell the government that we need that we need better management. We are here to tell the government that we want that we are equipped that we have the means to take care of the Cameroonians. Because if we are not even sick, how are we going to take care of others? We are legal.

The OECD health syndicate is not legal. Without the Prime Minister, the head of the government, we would not be in the commission. They told the Prime Minister that the OECD health syndicate is not legal.

We brought the evidence. The Prime Minister said that we are involved in the commission. We did everything.

They attacked us. But we are here. Why? Because we know that we are not involved.

We are not involved in these things. They set up our union conference. Because some have asked me why other unions are not with us.

We do not understand. I would like to remind you that in the union there is what is called union solidarity. Union solidarity.

When you see unionists or people who want to claim the union has the obligation to unite. But what happens is that some unions have become partners. Partners of the Minister of Public Health.

The role of the union is to defend the rights of its members. It is not the defense of the rights of the Minister of Public Health. I am not here to defend the Minister.

I am here to defend my comrades. I am here to defend our profession. Because we are in deep precariousness.

Do you know the number of temporary workers there are? We were talking about 21,000. It's more than 21,000. There are more than 40 temporary workers in our health training.

Because we did not recognize everyone. They are full. And every year the state forms.

And we do not recruit. We refuse to recruit. Why? Because we want those who are there to work to suffer.

We will not suffer. We will not suffer. We will not continue to suffer.

These children who work How can we work slavery in our own country? How can a Cameroonian be a slave in his own country? The Ministry of Public Health is asking us to work in serenity. What serenity? Now it's a mess. Oh, we are not legal.

Oh, the union is not legal. It's the same song. Every time we gather, there are strikes.

The union is not legal. And why, why, why, everything you did today, why didn't you put an amplification to the DGSN and others? Because you were disgusted. Let the staff speak.

From the age of 28, I say from the age of 28, this hospital is dead. General strike. Dear comrades, the Greeks, the Greeks will see.

Because it's us, it's our profession against these people. There are some who eat, there are some who sell drugs, who do anything. They think they can get by like that.

We think that we cannot continue in such conditions, by selling drugs, selling drugs, we think we cannot continue like that. We think we cannot continue like that. Mr. Minister, we are ready.

We will prove you there in front of the Ministry. We will prove you there. We will prove you there in front of the Ministry of Public Health.

Because it's our tutelage. It's our tutelage. That's why I'm wearing the white shirt.

The state trained me. I was trained by the state to take care of the Cameroonians. We had been trained by the state.

And the state gave us the means to take care of these Cameroonians. When we were trained, we were not trained to be slaves.

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