At Labour Day dinner: Bilingualism Commission says committed to social dialogue to improve staff welfare.

It was the Secretary General of the Commission, Dr Chi Asafor Cornelius, who spoke on behalf of the President of the strategic consultative body, Peter Mafany Musonge. 

This was in the presence of the Vice President of the Commission, Oumarou Djika.

While addressing staff of the Commission who were clad in the institution’s official outfit, Dr Chi Asafor stated the readiness of the body to continue dialoguing in a constructive manner with its workers whom, he was quick to describe as an important component to the functioning of the body.

He said the institution will stop at nothing in ensuring that its workers operate in a conducive work environment.

Speaking as he represented the President of the Commission, Dr Chi Asafor told the workers that: “Let me assure you that far from abandoning its determination to offer you an always conducive working environment in a context marked by uncertainty, His Excellency Peter Mafany Musonge, President of the Commission has opted for a gradual introduction of all Labour related measures instituted by legislation”.

He justified that: “This is because their operationalisation entails financial implications which the Commission cannot cope with the present moment”.

He, however, recounted that: “For at least the last three years, the Commission’s budget and more specifically its operating budget, has stagnated in terms of volume but has dropped in real terms in a context marked by externally, by the rise in the inflation rate and the consequent reduction in the real budget and by financial constraints of the state which is no longer able to satisfy the requests for additional resources made by public entities, including the Commission”.

Dr Chi Asafor then noted that: “Internally, this context is characterised particularly by: the full operationalisation of the Regional Offices with all that it entails in terms of financial requirements; the recruitment of new staff to cope with personnel deficit; the appointment of certain senior staff to positions of responsibility, appointments which have been followed by financial efforts; the limitation of personnel expenses at a level not exceeding 35% of the resources earmarked for the operating costs of entities drawing on the state budget, a threshold that the Commission has already crossed”.

From the foregoing, the Commission scribe said the choice is quickly made. 

He said the hierarchy of the institution must exercise caution in its management in the best interest of the staff’s wellbeing, as well as the sound management of public funds. 

“We have talked about social dialogue and the promotion of decent work. All the efforts so far made by the hierarchy of the NCPBM are aimed at prioritising social dialogue with pragmatism and realism. In any case, the existing problems will be addressed as soon as the necessary conditions are met,” he concluded.