Judicial workers union sees ‘chaos’ in reopening courts

The President of the Union of Judicial Officers (SFJ) this Thursday expected chaos in the reopening of the courts, with bailiffs on strike, amnesties being applied, the distribution of leave cases and a labor movement.

In an interview with Lusa, António Marsal estimated that the participation of the judiciary in the strike planned for this Friday (from 9:00 to 17:00) “will be quite high” and that without minimum services, most courts will be closed on the day of the actual resumption of the judiciary. activities after a month and a half vacation.

“This is also the day when the movement of justice officials will take effect and several hundred officers will be sent to the new courts. To help solve this serious problem, the amnesty law goes into effect tomorrow, but it’s also tomorrow. that cases that were not distributed during the court recess have to be distributed, which will further complicate this situation,” he said.

According to the SFJ president, the announced admission of 200 new bailiffs will not make things any easier, as the first two weeks are for training, “so only from the 15th will they actually be in the courts to start working.”

In addition, the trade union leader doubts that all workers will accept his positions, especially in Lisbon. “There will be 115 seats in the three districts of Lisbon, and I have many doubts that all of them will accept it.

By the way, if they are forced to live in this area, with a salary of less than 800 euros, it will be difficult for people to bear the cost of housing,” he said, stressing that these employees are “really needed” in the secretariats.

In July, the SFJ announced that the resumption of the judicial year on September 1 would be marked by a general strike, followed from Monday by strikes in an innovative format, by turns or by rotation.

“This is a strike that starts at the time for which the magistrate’s program provides for certain steps, and ends in the morning, at 12:30,” and then, “in the afternoon, it also begins during the marking of diligence and ends at 17: 00,” he explained.

According to António Marsala, these strikes “do not have to be the same throughout the country, but will take place until December 31, 2023 in parallel with the more classic strikes of total or partial shutdown of the nuclei or districts”, accompanied by a concentration of judicial officials.

Asked today about the impact of the SFJ strikes since early 2023, António Marsal made “very cautious” calculations and highlighted the “domino effect” of each delay.

“The figure far exceeds the 100,000 postponed stagecoaches. And for other procedural actions – from citations, notifications or requests for information – we will talk about more than five million actions to be taken. With the content of the protest and, above all, the lack of commitment on the part of the Ministry justice to strengthen human resources, the situation will worsen, and the restoration of this lost time will take about two years,” he stressed.

Faced with demands that the Justice Department failed to meet despite successive strikes, the union leader warned that “all countermeasures are permissible and will be given due consideration,” leaving a sharp criticism of the government.

“Forcing a worker to work after hours without paying a dime constitutes the crime of slavery,” he said, concluding: “All actions are being considered, including going to court, which has been allowed some of our demands to be met as it is about illegal and unlawful actions of the Ministry of Justice”.

The SFJ is demanding an immediate tender for access to all vacancies and categories and the inclusion of a procedural surcharge for reinstatement at maturity, also retroactive to January 2021 and payable 14 months later, as the union recalls, was provided for in two state budgets.