According to a statement from the Union of Officials of Justice of Angola (SOJA), to which Lusa had access, a general meeting of workers was held on 29 July in Benguela province to “analyze the degree of non-compliance of the points contained in the agreement signed between the employer (Ministry of Justice and Human Rights) and SOJA”.
The document points out non-compliance with regard to the demands for improvements in technical and administrative services, whose conditions are currently “inhuman and inconceivable” in several provinces of the country.
In addition to working conditions, the union also describes the lack of transport or the misuse of those that exist, forcing employees in some parts of the country to “carry by taxi, several times by motorcycle, at their own expense, the records books and identity cards, enduring various difficulties”.
The note also mentions the lack of cleaning assistants and employees, calling “urgently for the need for a public tender for entry and equal opportunity access, avoiding nepotism and cronyism”.
"The justice sector lacks employees, there are few of us and many retire each year", says the statement, which also reflects problems with remuneration statutes, which "deserve careful treatment".
“It is necessary to define the statutes of each class, including within them, the necessary perks, based on the difficulties and prominence of each service. We still have a lot of non-promoted employees even with requirements. We don't want promotional gradualism. At the country level we are only about six thousand or so. Promoting everyone who meets the requirements is possible”, he considered.
The union emphasizes that the current management of the ministry, since 2022, has been open to dialogue with SOJA, on three occasions, in which all the problems of the class were reported, with the holder of the portfolio assuming that the problems would be mitigated within the deadline of one year.
“That is, until December 2023. Today, with only four months to go, we are still experiencing and even worsening the problems in terms of services and employees. The current direction is simply not tied to the promises”, indicates the document.
The union says that the justice sector “raises millions, which are deposited daily in the General Justice Coffer”, however, the given destination is unknown, as the officers live and work “under inhuman realities, under the watchful eye of ministerial officials”.
“Whenever there is a change of ministerial direction, the new one that comes in always finds the coffer empty and justifies itself with this pretext. Could it be that the safe lacks an effective audit to determine the causes of this leakage of value in the succession of each direction and other situations?”, noted SOJA.
The strike, which runs until the 18th of this month, does not cover bailiffs assigned to the courts of common jurisdiction, due to the opening of a public tender for access to the courts of first instance, for career advancement, thus responding to a of the points of the claims book sent to that body.
