Mw Govt Firm on Judiciary Demands

Mw Govt Firm on Judiciary Demands: Pushing for Further Discussions

Government says it has maintained its position regarding three demands being made by its executive arm the Judiciary.  

The judicial staff comprising of Judges and Magistrates wants their salary adjusted corresponding to the rate that has been implemented for Civil Servants, payment of housing allowance, and the purchase of new motor vehicles for judicial officers and replacement of old vehicles which have clocked 150,000km.

According to a notice dated 21^st November 2014 signed by Justice Lovemore Chikopa JA as Chairperson of the Working Committee on Terms and Conditions of Service of Judiciary addressed to Minister of Justice and Chief Secretary, threatens that all staffs in Judiciary will at the expiry of seven days from the day thereof proceed to withhold labour until their issues have been resolved to their satisfaction.

“The information that has been given to the public suggests that the Judiciary is going on strike because Government has not resolved the issues that they had raised in their communiqué dated 30^th October, 2014 which was addressed to the Attorney General” said Samuel Tembenu Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs at a press briefing in Lilongwe over the weekend when making response to the impending judicial strike.

“These matters have been a subject of discussions for the past month between representatives of the Judiciary and the Office of the President and Cabinet; Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs”

Hon Tembenu said in several engagements the judicial staff “flatly rejected” government offer to bring their salaries to that same level as those obtaining in the Civil Service and to add on top of that a 15% increment. He said they have also indicated in no uncertain terms to accept nothing less than new vehicles and that their demands should be implemented fully.

He further said in three recent meetings of which one of them lasted only 15 minutes the Judiciary refused to compromise government position and explanation that, what has happened in the Civil Service is a salary restructuring exercise and not general increment.

The minister indicated that Judicial officers and supporting staff have always had higher salaries than other officers in comparable grades within the Civil Service and because of this disparity government is now implementing a Medium Term Pay Policy (MTPP) adopted in 2005 which its objective is to implement a harmonized pay and incentive regime for the public service within an affordable wage bill.

“In any event, it is an anomaly to describe the salary restructuring and harmonization as a general increment and to be used as a basis for the current demand.” Said the minister and indicated that accommodating all judicial staff demands in full, and the current economic situation, will defeat the whole purpose of 2005 “harmonization policy”

He therefore underlined that Government is pursuing the principle of “Equal pay for work of equal value” and full implementation of the measures will require significant efforts and understanding from all executive arms of government.

On housing allowances the minister indicated that all allowances such as on housing were consolidated in the basic pay which the Principle Secretary for Human Resource Samuel Madula concurred with the Minister and reminded on the consolidation which was made some years back to ensure that wage bill is manageable following a problem of “average in salaries” which in the end Late President Bingu Wamutharika proposed to go back to old system where he said everyone benefited a lot.

Madula added “There is no need to go back on this matter to add again on housing allowance which current budget cannot absorb and it would be difficult to meet the primary objective of harmonization.”

But Hon. Tembenu warned that the decision to go on strike as an arm of Government, Judiciary is “effectively abdicating” its constitutional responsibilities a development which may also result in disturbing pursuance of cashgate cases in courts where the Judiciary is a key player in the handling of these cases.

“Therefore, the Judiciary’s stated intention to go on strike at this point is tantamount to holding the people of Malawi to ransom. In any case, it is a tragedy for a whole arm of Government to shutdown in their manner proposed and deny the people of Malawi their right to access justice.”

Hon Tembenu however, said government is still appealing to Judiciary to live up to its constitutional mandate and responsibilities in the interest of the people of Malawi.

He expressed hope that reason will prevail in resolving this impasse very soon “We cannot resolve that issue after another branch has downed its tools we need to carryon doing our work all of us in our respective areas of work”