JUSTICE DELIVERY in the country is back on track; twenty-nine days after some state attorneys declared strike and abandoned the courtroom owing to government’s inability to address their unfavorable working conditions.
The state attorneys are now back in court after submitting themselves to compulsory arbitration as the National Labour Commission (NLC) begins to mediate over their concerns for better working conditions.
They were demanding an increment in their salaries and an upgrade of their conditions of service such as, “harmonization of salaries and benefits of state attorneys with those of the lower court with back pay (per section five of the legal service act, 1993 PNDCL320).”
“Payment of outstanding leave and clothing allowance, payment of fuel, sustainable support, machinery, equipment and tools, office computers, printers with toners, photocopiers, office cabinets, ‘A’ 4-sheets and law reports, office 7, housing facilities, transport to and from court, training and retraining, delayed promotion and payment of outstanding salary arrears and security at office and court.”
But, after a meeting between the state attorneys, the attorney general and finance ministry, the state attorneys decided to call off their strike following assurances given by government.
At a press briefing yesterday to announce their decision to call off the strike, president of the association of state attorneys, Francisca Takyi Mensah said they have called off their strike to continue with compulsory arbitration.
This was after the NLC had declared the action illegal, forcing them to back off from their earlier decision and submit to compulsory arbitration which began on Monday.
NLC, the arbiter in the case has a-14-day deadline to address the concerns of the attorneys, and though they resumed work yesterday, they have promised to make their next line of action known if their concerns are not addressed within the two-week grace period.
They added that the labour laws do not allow labour or a union to go on strike while the arbitration process is still ongoing.
It would be recalled that, the state attorneys declared a strike on July 7, to push their demands for improved working conditions.
They are demanding salary increment and a harmonization of their salaries and benefits to those of circuit court judges as stated in the Legal Services Act 1993. They also complain of lack of logistics which hinder their work.
According to them, various stakeholder discussions failed to yield any positive results, hence, the decision to strike. Government later dragged the striking attorneys to the NLC.
“We have been on legal strike for about a month now and were determined that we would not resume duty until these demands had been met. We had discussions with the chief of staff, officials from the ministry of justice and attorney general’s department, ministry of employment and labour relations as well as the ministry of finance and fair wages commission.
“We have also met with the parliamentary committee on constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs and finally with the members of the legal service board.
“Subsequently, we invited the NLC for compulsory arbitration together with two other parties namely, the finance minister and, minister for justice and attorney-general, pursuant to section 164 of the national labour commission act 2003, (Act 651),” she added.
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