A Staff representative can be defined as a wage earner of an enterprise elected by an electorate of workers of the same enterprise for a renewable period of two years. This office is important because it is quite tedious for the employer to deal individually with every dispute or every demand from each individual member of his staff. The staff representative plays an important role in the dialogue process between an employer and disgruntled staff. This helps controls the existence of chaos and instability through strikes within the premises of an enterprise.
The staff representative is elected for a term of 2 years under the supervision of the ministry of labour. Staff representatives shall be elected in any establishment on a regular basis where the worker are more than 20 in number irrespective of the nature of the establishment or the employer per section 122 of the labour code of Cameroon 1992.
Each staff representative shall have a substitute elected in like manner who shall replace him when he is absent for any valid reason or in the event of his death, resignation, removal, change of occupation category, termination of contract etc.
FUNCTIONS OF THE STAFF REPRESENTATIVE
The office of the staff representative plays the following functions;
- To relate to the employers any individual or collective demands in respect of conditions of employment, worker’s protection, the application of collective agreements, classification of occupations and wage rates which have not been directly acceded to,
- To relate to the labour inspector any complaints for any breach of the laws and regulations under the code which the said inspectorate is responsible for enforcing,
- To make sure that rules with regard to hygiene are respected and that safety of workers and social insurance are observed.
This in essence means that as per section 128 of the Cameroon labour code, staff representatives perform two traditional functions, which are;
- Concerning demands of workers, and
- Monitoring of the implementation of the law by the employer.