The concerns of the magistrates are expressed in a "joint interpellation", to which Lusa had access this Monday, from the Association of Judges of Angola (AJA) and the National Union of Magistrates of the Public Ministry (SNMMP) sent to the higher councils of both magistrates.
AJA and SNMMP note with "high concern" a "certain worsening of the social situation and remuneration of judicial magistrates and the MP, especially at the level of the first instance and similar institutions".
According to both organizations, there has been "a gradual reduction in the benefits provided for without any knowledge of rights".
The judges and prosecutors, especially in the first instance, "have gradually witnessed, over the last years, not only the sudden loss of purchasing power of their salaries", but also an "unjustified deprivation of rights and benefits, of economic and social charism, legally provided for", they say.
For two or three years now, they say, "it had been anticipated that the few rights that were still satisfied would be cut," but the intervention of the EYA and the Ministry of Justice in previous years "prevented such rights and benefits from being affected".
"But with the passing of Law no. 42/20 of 31 December, which approved the General State Budget (OGE) 2021, this exception fell, and the magistrates now find themselves in a worse situation than they have been enduring up to now," they regret.
The magistrates recall that in other public and sovereign bodies of the country, such as the civil service, members of the National Assembly, security bodies, judges of the higher courts, "there was salary updating", questioning their "exclusion".
"The recent increase in the Labor Income Tax (IRT) and social security contributions, as well as the other taxes approved and already in force, such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), which have further reduced salaries," they point out.
For these magistrates and the MP, "it is urgent and indispensable" that the State institutions "act in a concerted and practical manner" to solve the problems already identified and "mitigate the situation of almost begging to which they are relegated".
This is a reality that, they warn, "does nothing to dignify the judicial function, which is incumbent upon them, nor does it dignify the judicial power, at a unique moment when magistrates are called on the front line in the consolidation of the democratic State and the Rule of Law".
Both associations ask for "immediate solutions" to the lack of health insurance and/or health and medical care agreements for magistrates and their dependents, the need for personal vehicles "so that in a dignified and safe way they can better perform their duties".
The need for salary updating of magistrates and the MP of the first instance, they point out, must be in accordance with the updates occurred in other sovereign bodies and higher courts, "under penalty of activating convenient jurisdictional mechanisms".
A source told Lusa this Monday that the magistrates have already obtained a response from the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), who is also president of the Superior Council of Magistracy of the Public Ministry, Hélder Pitta Grós.
According to the source, Pitta Grós points out that the process of vehicle acquisition "awaits dispatch from the President of the Republic and in relation to salaries "a request will be sent to the Minister of State for Economic Coordination to proceed with the process.
