JUSAG strike delays justice

The hope of litigants and justice seekers to have access to the law courts still hangs in the balance, as members of the Judicial Service Staff Association (JUSAG) have refused to back down on their strike.

In spite of assurances from the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, last Monday that the association would likely call off the strike by the close of work yesterday because of the progress that had been made in negotiations, the association yesterday insisted that its strike would continue unabated.

Strike

JUSAG declared an indefinite strike on May 20, 2016, accusing the government of dragging its feet with regard to the implementation of its consolidated salaries as recommended by the Judicial Council.

According to the association, the government had failed to honour its part of an agreement to implement the new salary structure after it had appealed to JUSAG members to call off an earlier strike on April 1, 2016.

The association has taken an entrenched position to remain on strike until the government meets its demands.

Press conference

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the President of JUSAG, Mr Alex Nartey, said the National Executive Council of the association had studied a proposal presented to it by the government but it was not ready to call off the strike until the government addressed certain issues.

“We have identified some key issues that we need to refer to the government for swift consideration to enable us to call off the strike. In view of such issues, we are unable to call off the strike now,’’ he said.

He, however, failed to disclose the said issues, claiming that it would not be fair to discuss them in the open before they were presented to the government.

“These are issues that are meant for government consideration and I can’t discuss them with you, but they are towards the resolution of the strike,’’ he explained.

Mr Nartey added that the said issues were components of their demands which the association felt warranted urgent attention, adding: “They are no new issues, just that we need to place them in a manner that they can be catered for properly.’’

Same old story?

When asked whether the association was not going back and forth in terms of its deliberations with the government, he insisted that on the contrary, the labour union wanted the matter to be brought to an end.

“Yesterday, we met the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations in a bid to bring closure to these issues, but it was subject to NEC decision today. 

“As we speak now, we have not called off the strike. The minister was very confident that we will call it off but we need to exhaust issues of this nature.

“The issue is not necessarily about cash payment; it is rather an approval of a system that will reflect the reality on the ground,’’ he explained.

Lawsuit

Meanwhile, JUSAG’s legal team was in court yesterday to file its response to a suit by the National Labour Commission (NLC) challenging the legality of the strike, but because of the strike there was no court sitting.

Despite the strike, the NLC was able to file a writ at the court, claiming that the strike by JUSAG was unconstitutional, illegal and in bad faith.