Greek judges and prosecutors were to meet on Sept. 7-8 to plan a strike action after a deadlock between unionists representing them and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, who insisted the government would go ahead with plans for additional cuts of up to 25% in their pay and others in the category of so-called “special salaries,” as part of $14.6 billion in budget cuts for 2013-14.
The judges did not state how long they would stop working but the President of the Athens Association of Magistrates and Prosecutors, Roussos Papadakis, said they were unhappy they had been rebuffed by the uneasy coalition government of New Democracy Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, according to the newspaper Kathimerini.
“There were no points of convergence,” he said, adding that all 71 magistrates and prosecutors registered in Athens agreed to stop taking case work home, the only way most sector professionals manage to stay on top of their workload, although Greek courts are notorious for being tediously slow and having short working hours. Papadakis said that similar action would be taken elsewhere in Greece and that the strike could last five days, further clogging a system that has delays of as long as 10 years for some cases.
Union leaders planned to meet Democratic Left chief Fotis Kouvelis, who, along with PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos is part of the the coalition, and hoped to also see Samaras at some point, although the Premier has delegated Stournaras to talk to labor leaders.
(Sources: Kathimerini, ANSA)
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