Cameroon's Labour Code

Who is covered and who is not

A “worker” under the Code is anyone who, for pay, places their professional activity under the direction and authority of an employer, whether an individual or a company, public or private, regardless of sex or nationality (section 1). The text specifies that neither the employer's nor the employee's legal status matters: an employee of a small unregistered business is therefore covered in law, even if enforcement in the informal economy is another matter. Any contract performed in Cameroon falls under the Code, wherever it was signed (section 24). Companies in the industrial free zone are bound by it for anything their own regime does not cover (section 174).

• Excluded: civil servants (general civil service statute).
• Excluded: judges, the military, national police staff and prison service staff.
• Excluded: administrative auxiliaries, who have their own rules.
• Covered: contract staff of the state and of public companies who fall under none of those statutes, and all private-sector employees, secular or religious.

Core principles

• Work is recognised as a fundamental right; forced or compulsory labour is banned (section 2).
• Freedom of association: workers and employers may form unions freely, without prior authorisation; any discrimination based on union membership is banned (sections 3 and 4).
• Equal pay for equal work and ability, regardless of origin, sex, age, status or religion (section 61).
• Employers may not impose fines; the only sanction that withholds pay is suspension, of no more than eight working days, notified in writing and reported to the labour inspector within 48 hours (section 30).
• Wages are paid in legal tender, at least monthly and no later than eight days after the end of the month, with an individual payslip (sections 67 to 69).
• Every employee has a medical examination before hiring, and every business must provide a medical service for its workers (sections 98 and 100).

Working hours, night work and rest

The Code leaves exemptions from standard hours and overtime premium rates to decrees (section 80). The text of those decrees is not published online, and the websites that publish rates contradict one another (25, 50 and 75% on one, 30 and 50% on another, 15 and 20% on a third), so none of those figures is given here. Collective agreements often go further; the forestry industry agreement, for instance, also defers to the regulations and requires overtime to be shown separately on the payslip.

Women, mothers and children

• Minimum age: no child may be employed, even as an apprentice, before the age of 14, unless the minister grants an exemption by order (section 86). Under-18s may not work as coal trimmers or stokers on ships.
• Rest for women and children: at least 12 consecutive hours; night work in industry is banned for them, except for women in supervisory or non-manual jobs (section 82).
• Maternity leave: 14 weeks, starting four weeks before the expected due date, extendable by six weeks for pregnancy-related illness; the CNPS pays a daily allowance equal to the salary (section 84).
• An employer may not end a pregnant woman's contract because of her pregnancy, nor during her maternity leave; she, however, may leave without notice (section 84).
• Breastfeeding: up to one hour's break a day for 15 months after the birth (section 85).

Collective agreements

A collective agreement is a deal between employees' unions and the employers of a company or an industry. It may grant more than the law, never less, and sets the job categories and their minimum wages (sections 52 and 62). A decree can extend it to every company in the industry (section 53). Its formal requirements are set by Decree No. 93/578 of 15 July 1993. No official list of agreements in force was found online; below are those whose signature or revision is documented.

Labour inspection and staff representatives

Labour inspectors are sworn civil servants who head an inspection district. They may enter any establishment unannounced, day or night, question employer and staff, demand the registers and draw up reports that stand unless proven otherwise; they can take offenders straight to court. They must keep the source of a complaint confidential (sections 105 to 109). The inspectorate is also the mandatory first stop for any individual dispute: before going to court, employee and employer must ask it for conciliation (section 139).

• Staff representatives are compulsory in any establishment with at least 20 employees, public or private, secular or religious; two-year renewable term (section 122).
• Voters: aged 18 with six months' service. Candidates: aged 20, 12 months' continuous service, able to speak French or English (section 123).
• Up to 15 paid hours a month for their duties (section 124).
• Dismissing a representative, a candidate or a former representative (for six months) requires the labour inspector's authorisation, or it is void (section 130).

Unions and the right to strike

A union only exists legally once the registrar of trade unions has issued its registration certificate (section 6). A strike, defined as a collective, concerted refusal to follow normal working rules in order to win demands, is only lawful once conciliation and arbitration have failed (section 157). Striking without going through them exposes employees to dismissal for gross misconduct and a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 CFA francs; an unlawful lockout obliges the employer to pay the lost days (section 165).

Individual disputes: from inspectorate to court

• Mandatory conciliation before the labour inspectorate where the work is done; the conciliation report, once endorsed by the court president, becomes enforceable (section 139).
• If it fails, the case goes to court by oral or written statement at the registry, with the non-conciliation report attached (section 140).
• The competent court is the one where the work was done, or where the employee now lives if they have moved within Cameroon; it sits with a judge and two assessors, one employer and one worker (sections 132 and 133).
• Proceedings are free, at first instance and on appeal; appeal within 15 days, decided on the documents within two months (sections 138 and 154).

A reform in the works

On 22 September 2026, the 50th session of the Social Dialogue Consultation and Monitoring Committee, chaired in Yaoundé by Labour Minister Grégoire Owona, reviewed the plan to revise the Code. According to Cameroon Tribune, the process, launched in 2019 and then slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, is meant to cover remote work and digital platforms among other things. The minister called updating a text more than 30 years old “necessary and even urgent”. No new Code had been adopted as of 27 October 2026, according to the sources consulted.

Frequently asked questions