State attorneys have embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike until their demand for unpaid allowances and improved conditions of service are met.
The strike takes effect from today.
“We will not be in the office from Tuesday, July 7, 2015. We are tired of using our own money to run government business,” the President of State Attorneys, Ms Francisca Takyi-Mensah, told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra yesterday.
The strike will bring activities at the courts, the Civil, Criminal, Drafting and other divisions of the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Department to a halt.
Other areas to be affected are the Registrar General’s Department, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), the Land Title Registry, the Council for Law Reporting, the Copyright Office, Legal Aid, among other departments and agencies where the services of state attorneys are required.
In effect, persons requiring services from any of these agencies will not be attended to with effect from today until the government meets the request of state attorneys.
Nature of the demands The striking state attorneys are demanding the harmonisation of their salaries and benefits with those of judges at the lower courts with effect from 2012.
“We are legally entitled to this demand because it has been sanctioned under Section 5 of the Legal Service Act (PNDC Law 320). “The rationale is to encourage state attorneys to stay on and work, instead of leaving for the bench for better conditions of service. “More than 50 state attorneys left for the bench and the private sector in the last three years because of poor conditions of service,” Ms Takyi-Mensah stressed.
The next issue, according to the state attorneys, was the non-payment of their fuel allowances for the past six months. Clothing and leave allowances for state attorneys, according to Ms Takyi-Mensah, had also not been released by the government for the past seven months.
Pension scheme The striking state lawyers are also demanding to be placed under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme.
According to them, that should have happened since January 2015 but that was yet to be done. They are also demanding protection in their offices and at the courts, since they could easily be targeted and attacked by people they prosecute.
Most embarrassing Describing this problem as “most embarrassing”, Ms Takyi-Mensah noted that state attorneys did not have computers, file cabinets, toners, A4 sheets, Internet access and other office tools to facilitate their work.
“We use our own money to procure most items to facilitate our work. There are no vehicles to work with. Our offices are congested, while files are kept on the bare floor because there are no cabinets to keep these documents,” she added.
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