Justice Minister admits bailiffs’ strike has ‘undeniable’ impact and should consider recall

This Saturday, the Justice Minister acknowledged that the impact of the bailiffs’ strike was “undeniable”, expressed her hope that it would be canceled and called for reflection on the consequences of procedural delays.

“Secretary of State is reviewing the bylaws, we have already recruited more people, the other requirement is about retirement, that even judges don’t have that level of retirement. I really hoped that after that first conversation we could cancel this strike. I think that the justice officials who chose this strike should think and think about the consequences that this strike has in the area of ​​justice,” Justice Minister Catarina Sarmento y Castro said this Saturday.

The Minister spoke at the exit from the closing session of the XII Congress of Portuguese Judges in Funchal, Madeira.

At the meeting, he heard Manuel Soares, chairman of the Association of Portuguese Judges Syndical (ASJP), applaud the entire audience when he mentioned the fairness of the claims of the striking judicial officials, later supported by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Leaving, barely mentioning the bailiffs in his speech, he admitted that “the impact of the strike on the courts is undeniable.”

“It is undeniable, in fact it was alarming, I am very sorry that we went down this path, especially since we were told that we are working on a regulation on bailiffs in which they will not fail to consider the addition that is on the table . We have already attracted more people for the career of a bailiff,” he said, recalling the competitions opened at the beginning of the year to hire more employees.

Regarding the opinion of the Attorney General’s Advisory Board, which has not yet been received by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), he said that it was requested in order to clarify how the salaries of bailiffs who adhere to the strike model should be distributed. be treated by the Union of Judicial Officers, who decided to call the termination of only some activities and diligence, rather than the traditional strike of the entire service for a certain period.

“The legal difficulty that exists here and that determined the request for an opinion was that they explain to us how we should, given this reality, consider this circumstance as a form of struggle. I think that the trade union should have already considered actually ceasing to engage in this type of struggle, because it knows that we are revising the charter,” the minister said.

António Marsal, president of the Union of Judicial Officers (SFJ), who was present at the convention, dismissed the minister’s claims, accusing the guardianship authorities of failing to respond to two issues that the union considers important to end the strike: a 14-month guarantee of surcharges and the opening of shares .

He also criticized the fact that Catarina Sarmento i Castro did not respond to the call of Manuel Soares to quickly solve the problem of the bailiffs and, after the minister accused the bailiffs of “stubbornness”, continues the strike, which “destroys justice”. “.

“If justice is what it is, and if there is this serious problem of delays, the only responsibility is the minister as the representative of the government in the area. She cannot blame workers and unions for the incompetence that is currently rampant in the administration of justice. and the courts have consistently found us right,” Marsal told reporters.

The minister also sent out the results of the regulation of the procedural distribution law for the next few weeks, which the judges at the congress indicated as urgent, saying that “this will not be a completely new process”, but only a deepening of what already exists.

Before the judges, Catarina Sarmento i Castro referred to a legislative package in the administrative and tax sphere to implement “a policy set aside for several decades”, referring, for example, to the fact that “The Supreme Council of Administrative and Tax Courts now has administrative and financial autonomy and its own budget included in the general expenditures of the state budget”.

“Commitment to administrative and fiscal justice from the very beginning means a very clear fundamental option: there is room for special jurisdiction, which is now being strengthened. It was written into the law, but it was never implemented,” Katarina said. Sarmento and Castro.