1,200 workers in weeklong strike over salary arrears

At least 1,200 telephone workers have been staging a protest on streets of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, since 24 May, banging metal and shouting to demand 43 months of salary arrears. "We are prepared to keep demonstrating even in torrential rains until the government listens and resolves our situation," a female protester, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on Friday. The workers said they would continue their strike until they got paid at least two months of their salaries. The government can raise the money, the workers said. With high oil prices worldwide in 2004, the country earned an unexpected surplus of 136.3 billion CFA francs (US $262 million) from petroleum sales. The government also owes its other workers their salaries, some dating as far back as 1995, totalling an estimated 187.6 billion francs ($361 million). In 2004, the government paid only one month of the arrears it owed all workers. However, it remains unclear whether the government will pay salary arrears for the protesting telephone workers. The company, La Société des télécommunications du Congo (SOTELCO) was privatised in 2002. The government is the sole stockholder yet the head of SOTELCO, René Serge Blanchard Oba, said earlier in 2005 that the government had nothing to do with its daily management. He said the 1,200 striking workers had not actually worked at the company since it was privatised, even though they had not been formally dismissed. He said the company only employs a staff of 319 and their salaries have been paid in full. He and the protesters agree that the government was obliged to pay all salaries before the company was privatised and afterwards, which totals 49 billion francs ($93.2 million). "My six children have been thrown out of private school because I cannot pay and now I am even indebted to the government school," Viviane Ngolo, a protester, said. "But when will the government debt be paid to me?"