Judges Call Off Strike

MAGISTRATES, DISTRICT and Circuit court judges in the country have put on hold their nationwide sit-down-strike in protest against their poor conditions of service.

The judges, who constitute the lower bench, were due to embark on an indefinite industrial action from Monday due to the failure of the executive to respond to recommendations on their conditions of service.

After several months of agitations over their poor conditions of service, the judicial council appointed a committee chaired by Nana Dr S.K Asante, the Asante Asokorehene, to probe the concerns raised by the judges.

The committee recommended that the salaries of the judges should be improved, and official accommodation and vehicles, including book allowance, be provided.

Though the recommendations were forwarded to the president since November last year for action, the president had failed to respond to the recommendations.

This compelled the judges to threaten a strike action beginning this Monday, but information available to DAILY GUIDE suggests that the strike has been called off.

This, according to sources, stems from the fact that immediately their threat was published in DAILY GUIDE last Monday, the president personally wrote a letter indicating receipt of the recommendations presented by the Judicial Council.

The letter, according to a member of the national executive committee of the Association of the judges, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, was delivered to the Judicial Council last Wednesday.

He noted that the president had indicated in his letter that he had received the recommendations brought to his attention, and that immediate steps would be taken to address them in good faith.

The executive member disclosed that the president therefore pleaded with them to rescind their decision and continue with their work whilst he took the necessary steps to respond to their recommendations.

He said they had put on hold their strike action for now to give the president some time to respond to their recommendations, but warned that they would lay their down their tools if the president did not honour his word soon.

The executive member was full of praises for DAILY GUIDE, stressing that had the paper not published their intended strike, the president would not have even acknowledged receipt of the recommendations.

This, according to him, was because the recommendations had been on the desk of the president since November last year, but the president had not even written to acknowledge receipt of it, let alone respond to it.

He said not even several reminders sent to the president by the judicial council prompted him to write a letter acknowledging receipt.