State Attorneys end strike
State attorneys have ended their month-long strike following the entry of compulsory arbitration by the National Labour Commission (NLC).
“In view of the concrete steps taken to address our grievances, we, members of the association have duly called off the strike and members of the Association of State Attorneys have already reported to work as we speak,” the President of the Association of State Attorneys, Mrs Francisca Tete-Mensah, announced at a news conference in Accra yesterday.
The state lawyers on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, began an indefinite nationwide strike demanding unpaid allowances and improved conditions of service.
Mrs Tete-Mensah told journalists it would take 14 days for the unresolved issues to be addressed by arbitrators.
“The unresolved issues have been served on the parties and agreed upon by same. It is now time for the three arbitrators to go into the matter and at this point, the cooling off period is triggered,” Mrs Tete-Mensah disclosed.
Parties
Parties in the arbitration are the Minister of Finance, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
FWSC was joined to the action by the arbitral panel.
State attorneys had in the second week of July refused to resume work after the NLC directed them to do so with the explanation that the NLC had no locus because it had not set out issues to be resolved under compulsory arbitration.
Section 161 (1) of the NLC Act, 2003 (Act 651) stipulates that, “A party to an industrial dispute shall not resort to strike or lockout during the period when negotiation, mediation or arbitration proceedings are in progress.”
“At this stage of our quest for a resolution of our grievances before the National Labour Commission, being law-abiding citizens and as state attorneys for that matter, we deem it necessary for us to comply with the provisions of section 11 (1) as stated,” Mrs Tete-Mensah stressed.
Background
The association took the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General to the NLC in November 2014 but its correspondences to the NLC were not addressed, thereby, triggering the state lawyers to embark on the strike.
The action by the state attorneys, numbering 151, resulted in the adjournment of cases involving them. Only criminal cases being prosecuted by the police were heard by the courts.
The situation was not different at the Registrar-General’s Department, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), the Land Title Registry, the Council for Law Reporting, the Copyright Office and Legal Aid and other departments and agencies where the services of state attorneys are required.
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,” Mrs Tete-Mensah told the Daily Graphic during the strike.
The striking state lawyers are also demanding to be placed under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme.
They are, among other reliefs, demanding protection in their offices and at the courts, since they can easily be targeted and attacked by people they prosecute.
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