Courts strike over longer hours
Court workers are due to begin a 48-hour strike today in opposition to the Supreme Court’s plans to extend the working hours at courthouses in an effort to speed up the judicial process and clear up a growing backlog of cases. The employees are mainly opposed to the plans for courts to close at 7 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. because they believe that the real problem lies in the shortage of staff at courthouses. As part of their protest, the workers will also stage three-hour work stoppages from 9 a.m. on Wednesday and continuing for the remainder of this month. Instead, the court workers, who have decried their working conditions, want more secretaries, stenographers and court clerks to be hired. The Athens Bar Association (ABA) has also rejected the move for longer hours, as it believes courts simply need to be more efficient to clear the case backlog. The ABA backs the court workers in their view that more hirings are needed. The Court of First Instance in Athens, for example, has 101 unfilled positions. In the meantime, the number of cases that are not being heard is actually increasing rather than being reduced, the ABA pointed out. In 2005, 215,970 cases were lodged with the First Instance Court, while 68,928 rulings were issued. The following year, 229,972 cases were referred to the court but there were only 66,256 judgments. Afternoon court sessions are unworkable for a variety of reasons, according to the ABA. One problem is a lack of judges, as well as a number of allegedly incompetent magistrates, it said. The lack of administrative staff – to record court minutes – also complicates the process, according to the lawyers.
