ABSTRACT

Generally, the working conditions of plantation workers characterized with low income, poor housing facilities and austere working conditions is the same in all plantations within the globe. The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) is one of the richest companies in Cameroon and the second employer after the government but it is ironical that she has one of the poorest workers especially the general laborers. The main objective of this study is to investigate how a rich company like CDC has very poor workers. The research or alternative hypothesis of this study suggests that the management board of CDC is responsible for the misery of CDC workers in TIko. For effective investigation, primary and secondary means were used to obtain data. For the primary, 50Questionnaires were distributed among the camps with 5 for each camp after intervals of 10houses. Published and unpublished material was used. Map of the study area was collected from Tiko council. After a kinfinding and understanding of the conditions of CDC workers in CDC, urge both the management board and workers union to jointly work and provide decent and spacious dormitory settlement, more comfortable transport systems and a new bireme for increase wages for the CDC workers. If this is done, the labour needs of the plantation will be solve as many will be attracted to work in CDC.

CHAPTERONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

  1.0 Introduction

Material poverty by the western definition considers those who fall below a certain 8 income or consumption level and they lack basic facilities in life which result to low standard of living. Plantation worker s al l around the world have been noted for living in misery and poor conditions. They suffer from low wages austere working conditions and poor housing just to name a few. The Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC) is one of the richest companies in Cameroon and second employer after the government but it is ironical that she has one of the poorest workers especially the general laborers. The main objective of this study is to investigate how a rich company like CDC have very poor workers. The research or alternative hypothesis of this study suggests that management board of CDC is responsible for the misery of the CDC workers in Tiko.

1.1 Background of the Study

Several definition of poverty exis base on different ideologies, ways of life and disciplinary approaches. The prominent Western definition since the World War II defines poverty in monetary term s using the level of income or consumption to measure poverty. (Grusky and Kambur, 2006) and considers the poor to be those who fall under a given certain income or consumption level “poverty line” (Lipton and Ravallion, 1993). This economic definition however has been complemented in recent times by other approaches which view poverty in a multi dimensional way. These approaches include the following: Basi c needs approach (Streeton et al 1981), the capabilities approach (Sen ,1999) and the human development approach. These approaches have been widely used and accepted by the UNDP (United Nation Development Program). These approaches measure three dimensions of human development namely

1. Life expectancy
2. Educational attainment

• Standard of living measured by income in terms of its purchasing power (UNDP2006).

According to the ILD (International Labour Organization) 2004, anestimated 1.3billion people depend on agriculture for their livelihood with about 500million employed by plantations. Agriculture accounted for 31% of global employed in 2013. This percentage dropped from the 45% in 1991 to 31% in 2013. While the percentage of people dependent on agriculture is expected to be declining overtime, the sheer scale of working poor in the sector, and the inherently dangerous and uncertain of agriculture work require that the world focus on addressing decent work deficits a t all levels.

A plantation is a large piece of land usually in a tropical or semi tropical area where one crop specifically planted for wide spread commercial l scale and usually tended by resident laborers. Examples of plantations include Latin America which produce large quantities of wine and olive oil for export and the Cameroon Development Cooperation CDC in Cameroon which produces bananas, palm oil and rubber for exportation. (Wiki  pedia.com, 2018).

Plantation workers all the globe faces abuse of hard labour, low wages, insecurity, child abuse, lack of freedom of association and low living standard.

In the international level, plantation workers in Latin America are exposed to a large number of chemical hazards such as solvent, pesticides, and metal dust. Exposure to toxic chemicals can potentially cause cancer, respiratory and skin diseases, and have adverse effects on reproductive functions. Minerals and vegetables dusts, such as silica, asbestos, and coal dust, cause irreversible lung diseases. Infact, the risk of cancer from workplace exposure is of particular concern: around 350chemical substances have been identified as occupational carcinogens. The most common occupational cancer s in clued Leukemia, Sarcomas, and lungs bladder, skin and bone cancer (Roberto Fonteslunes, 2001, P.3).

Plantations were introduced in to the tropics during the 16^th century by European Colonist as a system of cheaply exploiting the hot humid environment and native labour as well as slave contract or indentured labour for the purpose of producing crops as sugarcane, palmoil, bananas and rubber to feed their growing population and industries. Agriculture is the backbone of most economies in sub-Sahara Africa, it consist 62% of the GDP (World Bank, 2015). However, the bizarre condition of work in those plantations is the same, insecurity, exposure to toxic chemical, low wages and exploitation of the indigenes in the plantation, crude working conditions, reduction of biodiversity and pollution. Plantations can be brutal places to live and work. They may no longer be associated with slave labour and corporal punishment o f colonialism but data gathered by the ILO and numerous researchers on plantation worker welfare, since 1950s ,provide wide spread evidence for low wages, long hours, poor worker housing, high risk and exploitation of child   labour.

In some sub Saharan countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon agriculture consist the major bulk of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As the major land use, agriculture exerts a powerful modifying influence on the natural environment especially through vegetation removal with profound implications for the living conditions of sub Saharan inhabitant. The agricultural practice is mainly the commercial plantation system. However, just in the 18^th century of slavery and slave trade practices in the plantations, plantations even today are breeding places for misery (Gyasi,1990)

In forest plantations in Ghana, half of workers (52.1%) complaint that the wages paid are too low and report that the pay is often delayed. They are positive about the ability to negotiate their income, but whether this leads to an actual pay rise is uncertain. The workers complained about a lack of working equipment, cutlasses and wellington booths. The feede roads leading to the plantation are in bad shape, so conveyance of people and harvested food crops is difficult and frequently leads to accident in the rainy season. (Hoogen bosch, 9November 2010).

In Nigeria the prevalence of long hours of work has become a major problem. Despite their flexible working time arrangements, many informal organization experience long periods of work. With the high cost of living couple with low incomes, it is almost impossible to survive in Lagos. The monthly income ranged from 29, 099.58FCFA to over 232.796.61 FCFA (Akeem ,January-June, 2014).

In the context of Cameroon, plantation work as described in the developed and other developing countries in virtually the same. Cameroon has many plantations mostly found in the coastal lowlands because of the fertile volcanic soils and easy construction of road. Amongs the mare, Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC), plantation de Haut Penja (PHP), Socité Camerounaise de Palmeraie (SOCAPALM) and Mbo banana. All of which produces bananas, palms and rubber mainly for export. The Austere working conditions of hard labour, and poor housing is the order of the day.       The Cameroon Development cooperation (CDC) an Agro industrial company created in 1947 as a public establishment to acquire, develop and operate extensive plantation of tropical crops. The corporation constitutes a work force of close to 16,000 employees including temporal workers, making it the second highest employer after the state of Cameroon. (CDC Cameroon, 2009). In the southwest where the CDC plantation is well established, dangerous transport to the work place and regular aerial spraying of agro chemicals means many parents do not believe banana plantations areas are place for their children. Long working hours and the physical demands of banana work mean that work related accident and illness are common.

In addition to CDC there is one other banana production company in the fako region known as plantation Hautpensa (PHP) which was later called SBM banana Plantation.

At PHP independent research, found out that workers were earning 22% more than CDC workers during low season and 27% more during peak season (Bananalink,2004).

In Tiko Banana Plantation for example, workers are still not ending enough to meet their basic household needs. Tiko which is one of the oldest towns in the SouthWest region has the highest number of CDC plantation but yet one of the poorest and less developed towns which is almost becoming a ghost towns. Workers Labour Day and night at times 7days a week but yet nothing to show forth though working in a rich company like CDC. The hard labour, low wages, poor basic facilities in the rubber, palm and banana sector has earned the workers very low living standard.