For the second day in a row, the Tirana Court administration continues its boycott due to the impasse over August salaries. Employees and judicial secretaries of the Civil and Criminal Chambers are not providing services, while seeking clarification on when their salaries will be paid.
In order not to penalize the arrested persons, only the sessions related to the determination of security measures will be held. A day earlier, the administration of the Court of Appeals also joined the boycott.
The impasse created with salaries in the justice system led to a meeting of court presidents at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, where it was decided to convene an extraordinary General Meeting of Judges on September 10.
The Prosecutor General, Olsian Çela, also held a meeting with the heads of prosecution offices, representatives of the High Prosecutorial Council and the Prosecutors' Association. During the meeting, the need for a quick solution by the Parliament, in compliance with the decision of the Constitutional Court, was emphasized.
The General Prosecutor's Office announced that "it was agreed to continue dealing with this issue through legal instruments, in order to guarantee the independence and normal functioning of the justice system."
The situation arose after the Assembly failed to approve the new formula for magistrates' salaries by the July 31 deadline, as requested by the Constitutional Court. After the deadline expired, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Supreme Administrative Court argued that they were obliged to implement the Constitutional Court's decision, setting the new reference salary at 222,425 lek, up from the previous 156,800 lek, as well as an additional 14,000 lek for the level of qualification.
The Ministry of Finance did not execute the payrolls calculated according to the new formula, arguing that determining salaries is the competence of the Assembly. The Ministry requested that the payrolls be resubmitted according to the previous methodology.
As a result of this impasse, not only judges and prosecutors, but also court and prosecutors' administration employees have not received their August salaries.
