The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG), has called off its indefinite industrial strike over government’s failure to address grievances concerning their salaries.
The leadership of the association last Wednesday declared an indefinite strike until such time that government approved a new salary scheme approved by the Judicial Council as well as issues concerning their arrears.
This brought untold hardship to many litigants across the county as all courts were virtually closed and citizens wondered when they could get their cases heard.
But JUSAG has called off the strike for two weeks during which government and other parties involved would seek to address the concerns of the association.
A memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), Office of the President, Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice and JUSAG said “JUSAG shall suspend the ongoing strike and all pending industrial actions for two (2) weeks ending on June 12, 2023.”
“That during the period of the suspension of the strike, the Parties shall negotiate in good faith, conclude and make the necessary arrangements for payment of the reviewed salaries and related allowances of staff of the Judicial Service in the month of June 2023,” the memo added.
JUSAG last week accused the National Labour Commission (NLC) of bias following an earlier summons for the parties to resolve the matter but the situation was unresolved.
Declaring the strike, President of JUSAG, Samuel Afotey Otu, said the association had suffered enough and subsequently asked its members to stay home until further notice.
“The current salaries review we are pushing for the President to approve and pay us does not affect only administrative staff of the service, Directors are part, District Court Magistrates are part, and the Circuit Court Judges are part. All these people serving the third arm of government have been subjected to this mistreatment by the Government,” he stated.
“We have suffered enough. We can no longer bear it. An empty sack cannot stand upright…by this declaration of strike, all staff of the service are immediately directed not to report to work from today onwards unless and until the President of Ghana complies with Article 149 of the Constitution by approving and paying our new salaries with all the arrears from January to date,” Mr. Otu added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak