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Judicial workers set for indefinite strike
By Victor
Efeizomor
Law Reporter
If the fresh threat issued by the
Judicial Staff Association of Nigeria, (JUSAN) is anything to go by, the
nation’s courts may be shut down again as judicial workers have decided
to embark on a nationwide strike from Monday.
Two weeks ago, the judicial workers ended
a one-week warning strike with as threat to embark on an indefinite strike if
their demands were not met.
Daily Independent checks revealed
that, this prompted JUSAN to hold an emergency national executive council
meeting in Nasarawa State on Saturday, where it was unanimously resolved that
the group should embark on an indefinite nation wide strike.
However, it was also gathered that
various states judicial service commissions and all the chief judges of the 36
states have started high level negotiations with the judicial workers to avert
the proposed strike.
Specifically the workers are asking for
“a unified judiciary salary structure as recommended by the National
Judicial Institute (NJI), the National Wages and Salaries Commission and the
Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission”
Other demands of the union include the
implementation of outstanding promotion of judicial staff in some states and
unconditional reinstatement of suspended staff of the Abia State Judiciary.
JUSAN also called for the repeal of the Anambra State Judicial Commission Regulation
2003, for being inconsistent with the 1999 constitution and that “ the
long awaited Judiciary Pensions Board should be established and constituted as
a matter of urgency to reduce the suffering of retired judicial workers”
In a seven-point resolution reached at
the end of the emergency meeting signed by National President, Mr. Usamatu B.
Anin, National Secretary, Mr. Basil Osita Mbanefo, and all the zonal
coordinators, the union stated that “there is a general consensus within
the judiciary community in Nigeria that the demands of JUSAN are just and
targeted at the realisation of the quasi autonomy granted by the 1999
constitution , and at checking the tendency for corrupt practices among the
non- judicial officers of the judiciary, which tendency is partly attributable
to the inexplicable neglect of the condition of service of those workers in the
past years”.
The union is also contending that
“considering the demeaning condition in which the non-judicial officers
of the judiciary operate, and taking into due cognizance the psychological
destructive disparities in payment schedules within the system.
for the administration of justice in
Nigeria, there is overwhelming sympathy for the JUSAN from the public and
private sectors of Nigeria”, adding that “ there has been no
visible effort by the leadership of the judiciary and the National Assemble to
resolve these chronic problems or open up proper channels for dialogue, or has
there been any significant response from the state governors and the various
judicial service commission in these regards”
“That this apparent conspiracy of
silence is only a grand design to cow the judiciary workers into believing not
only that they have no justifiable cause but also that they are only to be seen
and not be heard and fairly treated, that the judiciary staff of this country
deserve commensurate respect and to be better treated and that they are
determined to pursuer their demand to a logical conclusion”, it posited.
The workers therefore resolved that
“ in implementation of the foregoing resolution therefore, we the
undersigned officers of the Association hereby direct all members of staff of
the judiciary nation wide to commence and sustain an indefinite strike action
with effect from the 6th day of December 2004 until a directive to the contrary
is giving in writing by the National secretariat”
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