Judiciary warns striking support staff of disciplinary action

Judiciary officials have told striking support staff to go back to work on Wednesday or face disciplinary action.

The registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court Agnes Patemba said the striking staff did not go through the recognized union which deals with labour issues.

In a letter to the striking support staff, the judiciary says the union has not engaged management on the matter.

“The union engages with management and other relevant authorities on issues of concern to judiciary members of staff.

“This process is ongoing. The union however, has not notified management or any other relevant authorities of any dispute,” says the letter from management.

Management says it is only when there is a failure to resolve a dispute that industrial action may be resorted to by the union after following proper procedures.

Judiciary support staff who work for the principal registry and chief resident magistrate in Blantyre on Tuesday started a sit in, threatening the future of the landmark Elections case at the Constitutional Court.

The judiciary support staff have ignored calls from their Labour union leadership to call off the sit in which they called irregular, illegal and unnecessary at this point.

Spokesperson for the union Andy Hariwa said although the working conditions of the judiciary support staff leaves a lot to be desired, the support staff have not followed required procedures to call for the sit in.

The support staff want their conditions of work, as harmonized with those of the judiciary officers, be approved by parliament with immediate effect.

The judiciary support staff are also demanding the resignation of the chief justice Andrew Nyirenda and the registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court Agnes Patemba for failing to address the issues.

However, some sections of the society say the sit in has been organised by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to derail the Constitutional Court proceedings of the high profile presidential poll result challenge case underway in Lilongwe.

Some sections of the society say the DPP and the Malawi Electoral Commission feel they do not have a case against the opposition Malawi Congress Party and UTM.

They feel the court would order for a presidential election rerun hence employing tactics to put spanners to the proceedings as part of delaying tactics to the case so that president Peter Mutharika and the DPP remain in power, as of now.