The Association of State Attorneys is threatening a nationwide strike over government’s failure to meet their demands for improved conditions of service.<\/p>\n
The Association has chastised the Ministry of Finance, the Justice and Attorney General\u2019s Department and the Fair Wages and Salary Commission for failing to implement some directives of the National Labour Commission for their improved conditions of service which includes the provision of vehicles, harmonized salaries, sustainable pension schemes and logistical support.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”I5sn69PI6dF7EzrSnPXLL1VaL5om3gSV”]A letter written by the association to the NLC lamented that \u201ceven though the Association has forwarded the SSNIT numbers of all its members to the legal service board as directed, till date no pension scheme has been put in place for state attorneys who were on the old CAP 30.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Association further noted that it has submitted proposed comprehensive conditions of service to the legal service board which is chaired by the Minister for Justice and Attorney General but\u00a0\u201cit is quite disheartening that over one year after the award was published no proper conditions of service have been implemented for State Attorneys.”<\/p>\n
“The Association of State Attorneys is taking a very serious view about the refusal of the respondent herein to comply with NLC\u2019s compulsory arbitration award which is binding on all parties to the dispute even after one year of the publication of same,\u201d the letter added.<\/p>\n
Below are the reliefs being sought by State Attorneys:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are by this letter giving notice of our intention to resort to legal strike in 7 days if our demands are not met,\u201d the letter added.<\/p>\n
State Attorneys call off strike<\/strong><\/p>\n State attorneys embarked on a strike about three months ago over the same issues.<\/p>\n It later called off the strike<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0to enable them go through the arbitration process.<\/p>\n State attorneys ditching gov\u2019t for better paying jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n The Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa had earlier complained that experienced state lawyers had abandoned<\/strong><\/a><\/span> the service for better paying jobs.<\/p>\n She noted that currently, Accra has only 36 prosecuting attorneys, adding that the situation is \u201cworse in the regional offices.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will come, gain the experience and go to better paying jobs, that affects the numbers that we have and the volume of work. We have so much work to do\u2026sometimes you could have a docket sent to us which could be with a particular attorney for about three weeks or a month, not because that Attorney does not want to pay attention to the docket but that attorney has for instance 60 other dockets to work on,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
\n