Judiciary strike goes nationwide
Court users were yesterday denied entry to courts as the Judiciary support staff strike spread nationwide yesterday.
The staff said in interviews yesterday that they will not return to work until government issues a circular indicating their salary adjustment similar (45 percent) to that offered to civil servants last month.
During spot checks at the courts in Blantyre and Lilongwe yesterday, Judiciary support staff were seen sitting idle in groups and sharing jokes.
In Lilongwe, the staff opted to play social football on the lawns of the court premises.
Court users, including State prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu had no access to the Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court when he arrived to make an application on a Cashgate case he has been prosecuting.
A police vehicle ferrying remandees for court was also turned back while other men and women loitered around watching the Judiciary staff play football inside the enclosed perimeter fence.
One Judiciary staff who opted for anonymity because Lilongwe was yet to appoint a spokesperson said just like other civil servants, she was affected by the rising cost of living and deserved a pay rise.
“Without us, the courts cannot function, so we will remain here until we hear from our bosses on the way forward,” she said.
If the strike continues, it will affect the continued cross-examination of the former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo in his attempted murder case slated for this Wednesday to Friday whose accused persons include former minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara alongside five others.
In Blantyre, lawyers who wanted to access the courts were being sent away from the premises as the striking workers chanted: “Ma lawyer inu! Ma lawyer inu! M’manja mwathu mwachokamo! Pano muli m’manja mwa a Peter!” [Lawyers, you are no longer in our hands, you are now in the hands of President Peter Mutharika]”.
In an interview yesterday, deputy spokesperson of Conditions of Service for Support Staff Committee Linley Herbert said the staff are not demanding a 30 percent pay increase as others are saying, but rather, they want the same percentages that government has given to civil servants.
Herbert said when government made a review of their conditions of services in 2012, it said whenever there is a general increase in salaries and allowances in the civil service, the salary and allowances of a judicial officer shall correspondingly be increased.
“To prove to us that we have indeed been put in the category of civil servants, when government was revising civil servants’ leave grants, ours was reviewed with the same percentages as the civil servants. Now we are surprised that government has failed to do the same with salaries when it was its idea to include us as civil servants,” said Herbert.
Asked whether they followed procedures before starting the strike, Herbert said the workers saw no need of doing so because government itself did not follow procedures.
Judiciary spokesperson Joseph Chigona and secretary for Human Resource Management Sam Madula could not be reached for their comments on the way forward as they were reportedly locked up in a meeting in Lilongwe.
But in an interview on Monday, Chigona pointed out the need for government to address the issue urgently, saying the strike has the possibility of derailing justice delivery.
In a circular dated October 14 2014 signed by Madula, government offered a 45 percent increment to all civil servants.
