Lower court judges in Ghana are threatening to embark on a strike on November 21, 2016 if government fails to increase their salaries by 10 percent.
“We therefore respectfully wish to notify your good office that members of the lower bench have taken a decision to withdraw our services from 21st November 2016 if the issue of the 10 percent is not addressed and the money paid to us,” a letter addressed to the Chief Justice and seen by citifmonline.com stated.
In the letter the lower court judges lamented that several efforts in having the issue resolved including writing a letter to the Ministry of Finance have proved futile.
They added that they have no other choice but to withdraw their services on the said date.
“Respectfully, honourable Lady Chief Justice, we humbly wish to inform you that the letter addressed to the Minister of Finance has not received any attention. We humbly bring this to your attention because the undue delay has created anxiety and frustration among members of the lower bench. This is particularly so implementation of the conditions of service of the lower bench has been characterized with frequent interruptions and disruptions since 2013,” the judges lamented.
“Respectfully, we have also observed that this disruption and interference with our conditions of service has occurred as a result of the erroneous manner in which the concerns of other institutions have been addressed even though these matters are not related to judges and magistrates of the lower bench.” Background
In June 2016, lower court judges issued a stern warning to government to immediately abandon a planned move to revise their conditions of service.
The judges, who work in the magistrate and circuit courts across the country, said they were being short-changed in the proposal presented for a review of their salaries.
One of the judges, His Honor Aboagye Tandor had earlier said they will advise themselves if nothing is done about their concerns.
“Certain reforms have been done with regards to our salaries without any views or recourse to us. No inputs were made to us and we saw that there were some discrepancies so our members were of the view that the purported letter that was brought should be withdrawn. We were surprised that as members of the lower bench we would have conditions reviewed even before we are notified. You cannot review that recourse, it should be withdrawn…”
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