Judicial employees to go on 'unlimited' strike; courts likely to collapse

Judicial employees intend to go on "unlimited" strike this month, demanding salary hikes and higher stability of courts, TASR learnt from Judicial Labour Union vice-chair Mária Rusnáková on Tuesday. Up to 4,500 employees might join the strike, which thus carries the risk of Slovak courts collapsing. "Despite the effort on part of a working group collaborating with the Justice Ministry, which participated in the drafting of Act on Judicial State Service, the Finance Ministry doesn't show any interest in stabilising the posts of individual courts," claimed Rusnáková, who bemoaned the surfeit of workload for court assistants and clerks, who often work for minimum wage or even less. She also cited excessive fluctuation of staff as another problem.