The Union of Justice Officials (SOJ) accuses the Ministry of Justice of not responding to the demands of the sector regarding professional promotion and promises to continue with surgical stoppages in some courts starting in October.
After delivering an open letter to the Ministry of Justice on September 2 and seeking a meeting with Catarina Sarmento e Castro, SOJ president Carlos Almeida told Lusa that “there was no response from the minister” to the concerns expressed by the union and criticizes the “inertia” of the government in this matter, recalling the silence of the ruler in the recent Consultative Council of Justice.
The SOJ decided to go ahead with a series of newspaper advertisements asking for candidates for the “excellent job opportunity”, presenting as perks a gross salary of 792.10 euros, “guarantee of workplace harassment and high probability of ‘burnout'” and hundreds of of overtime per year “worked and unpaid”.
The reason for the announcements has to do with the inertia of the Ministry of Justice and the lack of conditions given to the bailiffs. Everyone recognizes the lack of bailiffs, but the conditions are terrible and some even violate fundamental rights. We present the announcement so that citizens can get to know the race and see if it is attractive. These are real conditions. Some even border on hilarious,” said Carlos Almeida.
For Carlos Almeida, the minister “does not have a Justice program” and some measures adopted “are nothing more than palliative.” At the same time, even other measures, such as the announced reinforcement of 1,100 members of the Judicial Police by 2026, are seen by the president of the SOJ as important, despite the expectation of a negative reflection in the courts.
“With this increased volume of service and the results that will appear, will the courts have the means to move cases forward? If the PJ is going to have more capacity, this will be answered with an increase in criminal cases and the courts will not respond. Another government will come and find the recipes,” he said.
Asked about new protest actions, Carlos Almeida said that the SOJ will change the way strikes are carried out and points to a stoppage on October 4 in the courts of Lisbon, Porto and Ponta Delgada during the morning and afternoon of October 6. October in court. of Coimbra, Setúbal and Funchal. “We are going to focus more on the courts with the largest number of investigations,” he added.
Also denouncing a “lightening of responsibilities of all sovereign bodies in relation to the functioning of the courts,” Carlos Almeida defended that “justice is being abandoned” and warned that this scenario could contribute to political extremism.
Before the country falls into populism, we are saying that something is wrong. The sovereign body of the courts is very important to balance the social relationship of the country and, if nobody does anything, the country can fall into those drifts that other countries are already experiencing. We want Portugal to remain a democratic country and that is what we have to tell the people: the problems that affect the courts affect the democratic system”, he reiterated.
The president of SOJ assured that he has also transferred the wishes of the sector to the President of the Republic and that, if there is no response, he plans to present a letter to the European Parliament to expose the reality of the bailiffs in Portugal.
Among the main requirements of the bailiff career are the provision of vacant positions, the opening of promotion procedures and access to all categories with available positions, the inclusion in the salary (with retroactivity to 2021) of the procedural recovery complement , the regulation of access to the early retirement system and the presentation of a proposal for a new professional statute.
Source: Observadora
