Court employees warn: Increase salaries or radicalize protests

Employees in Montenegrin courts will continue to stop their work for an hour next week, and if they do not receive a response from the authorities to their demands for a salary increase, they are announcing the radicalization of the protests.

Several Montenegrin courts have suspended work for an hour since October 6 due to a warning strike by judicial employees, who are protesting every working day from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

"Despite repeated requests, the relevant institutions have not yet provided any response to the justified initiatives of employees in judicial institutions, nor have they shown a willingness to initiate a dialogue aimed at resolving the existential issues of this category of employees. This ignorant attitude further undermines the position of those employees who represent the foundation of the judicial system, and who at the same time receive the lowest salaries in the country. Due to such an attitude, employees will continue with a one-hour work stoppage next week," the statement of the Union of Administration and Judiciary states.

They say that if there is no concrete response from the competent authorities and negotiations do not begin, the employees will inform the public about new measures to radicalize dissatisfaction.

"We hereby warn once again that continued ignoring of the requests threatens to lead to a complete blockade of the judicial system, with serious and disproportionate consequences both for the work of the judiciary and for the interests of the citizens of Montenegro."

The Union of Administration and Judiciary called on the Government and competent institutions to urgently approach a responsible and constructive solution to the problem.

"Employees in the judiciary are not seeking privileges, but are only seeking what is due to them - fair compensation for the responsible, complex and irreplaceable work they perform within the judicial system, in accordance with legal and professional standards," it was announced.

They recalled that the demands relate to increasing the salaries of all employees in the judiciary by 30 percent, as a temporary solution, prescribing titles for civil servants and employees through special regulations, as well as establishing separate salary coefficients for this category of employees.

"This way, the real responsibility, complexity and specificity of the tasks that judicial employees perform on a daily basis would finally be recognized, in an institutional and systemic manner - tasks that form the invisible, but key backbone of the judicial system, and which are of crucial importance for the exercise of citizens' rights, the functioning of institutions and the preservation of the rule of law in Montenegro," the statement reads.