Hiring in Cameroon: the contract visa, the contract and a salary worked through, step by step

Move someone who is already in Cameroon

Every contract with a foreign worker carries the labour minister's visa, so a new employer's contract needs its own. It is filed with a certified copy of the person's entry and residence papers. A renewal of a foreign worker's contract needs a visa too. When a contract with a visa ends, the employer tells the authority that gave it within fifteen days.

A Cameroonian national needs no visa. Their move turns on the notice in their current contract, which an order sets by category and length of service. During it, they have a day a week off on full pay to look for work.

Check the role is open to a non-Cameroonian

Cameroon's Labour Code recognises the right to work as a basic right of every citizen. For a foreign hire, the visa checks the contract and the file that goes with it.

A labourer, manual worker, clerical employee or supervisor can be a foreign national only where the employment services certify that no Cameroonian is available in that field. An order of the labour minister can extend that certificate to other occupations. The visa file also carries the business's plan for filling its posts with Cameroonian nationals, approved by the minister.

Set the contract up right

A contract can take any form the two sides choose, and can be proved by any means. A fixed term of more than three months, and any contract that moves the worker away from home, is written, with a copy to the area's labour inspector. A written contract is free of stamp and registration duties. A contract to be performed in Cameroon follows the Labour Code wherever it was signed.

A fixed term runs for up to two years. The French text of the Code lets it be renewed for the same length, and the English text says it is renewable once. Both texts are authentic. For a Cameroonian employee, both allow one renewal with the same company, after which the contract becomes open-ended if the work goes on. A foreign employee's renewal needs the visa. These limits do not apply to temporary, occasional or seasonal work.

A trial period is agreed in writing. It lasts no longer than the job needs, and no more than six months with its renewal, or eight for managers. An order sets the longest first trial by the category the worker is hired in, from fifteen days in the first two categories to four months in the top three. It can be renewed once, in writing, before it ends. Either side can end a trial without notice or compensation, unless the contract says otherwise.

A clause barring the employee from competing after the contract ends applies in two cases only: where the employee breaks the contract after the employer paid for their move to the job, and where the contract ends for their serious misconduct. It reaches no further than 50 kilometres and lasts no more than a year.

Pay is in legal tender, at intervals of no more than a month. Monthly pay is paid within eight days of the month's end, with a payslip each time. A claim for unpaid pay can be brought for three years. The minimum wage is XAF 60,000 a month in most sectors, XAF 45,000 in agriculture and related sectors, and XAF 43,969 for State employees under the Labour Code.

The legal week is 40 hours outside agriculture. In agriculture, hours are based on 2,400 a year, within 48 a week. Overtime is paid at a higher rate that a decree sets. Night work runs from 22:00 to 06:00. The weekly rest is at least 24 hours in a row, in principle on Sunday. It cannot be replaced by pay.

Know the employee test before you engage a contractor

Cameroon's Labour Code treats as a worker anyone, whatever their sex or nationality, who has undertaken to put their professional activity under the direction and authority of another person, for pay. The legal status of either side does not count in deciding it.

A contract to be performed in Cameroon follows the Code wherever it was signed. So does a contract partly performed there, except for someone sent on a mission of up to six months.

A role that needs a contract visa goes through employer of record.

Work out what a salary costs you and what the employee takes home

Take an employee on XAF 1,200,000 a month, all of it basic salary, in a business in the lowest work injury risk group.

Pensions and family benefits count pay up to the CNPS ceiling of XAF 750,000 a month, so this salary is counted at the ceiling. Each side pays 4.2% of it for pensions. You pay 7% of it for family benefits, the general scheme's rate. Work injury is 1.75% of all pay, the lowest risk group's rate.

Income tax is worked out on the year. A flat 30% of gross pay comes off for professional expenses, up to XAF 4,800,000 a year, and so does the employee's pension contribution. An abatement of XAF 500,000 a year then comes off, leaving XAF 9,202,000. The bands take 10% of the first XAF 2,000,000, 15% of the next XAF 1,000,000, 25% of the next XAF 2,000,000 and 35% of the rest, XAF 2,320,700 for the year. A twelfth of it is withheld each month, rounded here to the franc. The council surcharge adds 10% of the tax.

The Crédit Foncier takes 1% from the employee and 1.5% from you, and the National Employment Fund 1% from you, each on the whole salary. The audiovisual levy is XAF 13,000 a month on gross pay above XAF 1,000,000. The local development tax is XAF 30,000 a year on a basic salary above XAF 500,000, collected with income tax, a twelfth of it each month.

Income tax is paid by the 15th of the next month. CNPS contributions are paid within the first fifteen days of the next month. A late payment of them adds 10%. Once three months have passed since they fell due, a further 3% is added for each quarter or part of a quarter. No income tax is withheld from gross pay below XAF 62,000 a month.

Know the leave your people are entitled to

End employment on the law's terms

An open-ended contract ends on notice from either side, given in writing with the reason. An order sets its length for each category and length of service, and it runs from the notification. During it, the employee has one day a week off on full pay to look for work. A side that skips the notice owes the pay for it, except for serious misconduct.

A dismissal needs a legitimate reason, which the employer proves. A wrongful termination can lead to damages. Where the employer is at fault, a court sets them by the employee's seniority, age and rights, at no less than three months' salary and no more than a month's salary for each year of service. Where the reason was legitimate but the formalities were skipped, a court can award up to a month's salary. Both count the average gross monthly salary of the last twelve months.

After two years' service, an employee dismissed other than for serious misconduct is owed an indemnity, on top of notice. For each year, it is a share of the average monthly pay of the last twelve months, counting part years to the month.

An economic dismissal starts with a meeting with the staff representatives, in front of the labour inspector, to look at other options such as shorter hours or part-time work. The negotiations last no more than 30 clear days. An employee who refuses the agreed measures in writing is dismissed with notice pay and, where due, the indemnity. Where dismissals are still needed, the order puts professional ability first, then seniority and family responsibilities. The representatives have eight clear days to answer the list. The file then goes for arbitration, to the labour minister in the French text of the Code and to the labour inspector in the English text. Those dismissed keep priority for rehiring for two years, over candidates of equal professional ability.

A fixed term ends early only for serious misconduct, force majeure or written agreement. A trial ends without notice. During maternity leave the contract cannot be ended. Pregnancy is never a ground for dismissal. A work certificate is owed when any contract ends.

See what changed this year, and what is next

No change to the Labour Code, the minimum wage or the social security rates took effect in the last twelve months. None is scheduled in a published text.