The union of agents of the forestry company Rougier Gabon is not ruling out a strike action in the coming days if the workers' salaries are not increased. 

According to Jules Aimé Nzame Ndong, general secretary of this union who spoke with Gabonese media at the end of last week, "the first hurdle does not necessarily come from Rougier but from the government". He considers that the agreement tying the agents to the French company is two decades old. "In this agreement, the pay is FCfa400 the hour", he rages.

The union also denounces the fact that the labour law passed during the conference on dialogue of Angondjé in December 2014 has never been put into application. Consequently, the union requests that the state revises the collective agreements in the timber sector and extends the application of the guaranteed minimum wage (SMIG) of FCfa 150,000 to the private sector.

The French Rougier group has been established in Gabon since 1952 and has a forest operation of approximately 880,000ha for a production reaching 300,000m3 of logs per year. Rougier Gabon employs about 1,500 workers.