The State Chairman of JUSUN, Mark Ifezue, gave this indication in an interview with our correspondent in Awka, the state capital on Friday.
Ifezue said the judiciary workers in the state were aggrieved with the state government and might go on strike if the Anambra State government did not meet its demands.
He said, “The NLC strike is just and we support it in spirit, but it would be an irony for those of us who work in courts to encourage disobedience to court orders. That was why we did not join the strike.”
The JUSUN Chairman told SUNDAY PUNCH that the state government had reneged on all the agreements it reached with the court workers when the union suspended its strike some months back.
“There is a level our patience can’t continue to carry us. The area that will spark off another round of industrial dispute between us and the state government is non-payment of the 2015 leave allowance to our workers,” Ifezue said.
He said the state government had paid other workers in the state their 2015 leave allowances in December last year.
“We have complained to the Secretary to the State Government and the Head of Service about this but nothing is being done about it and we will not continue to be patient. Again, the issue of financial autonomy for the judiciary in the state is another time bomb waiting to explode because the state government has refused to do anything about it.
“Nothing is also being done about our agreements with the state government before we suspended our strike over the payment of Consolidated Judiciary Salary Structure. We have complained to some lawyers to intervene before people begin to blame us for shutting down courts in the state,” Ifezue pointed out.
When contacted, the Secretary to the State Government , Professor Solo Chukwulobe said he would not want to discuss the issue of the judiciary workers’ leave allowance as it did not fall within the purvey of his office.
On the issue of granting financial autonomy to the judiciary in the state, Chukwulobe described it as laughable for an employee to delve into such area.
“What does he know about financial autonomy for the judiciary? That issue is between the state governor and the Chief Judge of the state and not the business of an employee,” he said.
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