The strike was announced by the Collective of Permanent Judges of Haiti, which condemned the authorities’ failure to honor commitments made to end what they considered to be discrimination between regular judges and practicing judges in terms of salaries and benefits.
The court reported that judges receive debit cards worth a third of their salary, service allowances worth about half of their monthly fees, gas vouchers worth sixteen thousand gourdes (about $120), prepaid phones, and other benefits.
For several years, the union has carried out long work stoppages to demand humane working conditions. In March this year, the judicial system was completely paralyzed due to a strike by bailiffs and court clerks.
The move disrupted the work of courts in all 18 jurisdictions and caused significant harm to litigants.
At that time, Judge Jean Claude called on the government to take the necessary measures to meet the demands of bailiffs and secretaries and considered their salary demands to be fair.
The new strike comes a month into the judicial year and shortly after authorities launched a program to reduce lengthy preventive detentions, affecting eight out of 10 prisoners.
ro/ane