Lower court judges in Ghana have threatened to embark on a strike on November 21, 2016 if government fails to increase their salaries by 10 percent.
According to them, several efforts in having the issue resolved have yielded no results.
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“Respectfully, honourable Lady Chief Justice, we humbly wish to inform you that the letter addressed to the Minister of Finance has not received any attention. We humbly bring this to your attention because the undue delay has created anxiety and frustration among members of the lower bench. This is particularly so implementation of the conditions of service of the lower bench has been characterized with frequent interruptions and disruptions since 2013,” the judges said.
“Respectfully, we have also observed that this disruption and interference with our conditions of service has occurred as a result of the erroneous manner in which the concerns of other institutions have been addressed even though these matters are not related to judges and magistrates of the lower bench,” they added.
READ ALSO: Restore entertainment, leave allowance for judges - Atuguba
Senior judges in the country recently demanded a review of their entertainment allowance and other conditions of service.
Supreme Court Judge, Justice William Atuguba believed judges and magistrates in the country must be given a “unique” remuneration system which would be different from all existing salary systems in Ghana.
Addressing the annual magistrates and judges’ conference at the La Beach Hotel in Accra, Wednesday, September 28, Justice Atuguba said the move will prevent judges from falling victims to bribery and corruption.
“I call on the Bar, the Judicial Council and the Bench to coordinate their efforts and engage the article 71 committees and other relevant authorities to press for, recognition of and response of the fact that the Bench has a unique and pivotal role to play in this country and its conditions of Service must correspondingly be unique and should not be considered in common with any generalized policy on pay structure or the like," he said.