Questions I’ve been pondering:-
- What is the phone number for the Ministry of Justice?
- Does the Ministry of Justice have phones that dial out?
- Does the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Justice have a cell phone?
- If yes to 3 above is it turned on?
- If no to 3 above would she accept a gift of a prepaid phone in order to make and receive calls?
- Who got a pay increase more than double the entire salary of the lower paid clerical workers in the Ministry of Justice?
- Is the answer to any of 2,4, or 5 is yes would the answer to 6 use one of those phones to make a call and stop the disruption that is happening in our court system.
They have a hotline 0800 URSTUFFED – ring ring, welcome to the justice line you are 2500th in line, please hold and we’ll be with you shortly…
I used to work for the Courts – they were the lowest of the low – we got paid shit. The integrity of the workers and their commitment to ensuring efficient valuable adminstration of justice was simply flung back in their face.
I sincerely hope that karma is real.
Chris, I also hear that the government uses the commitment of court staff to the fair and speedy administration of justice to keep their wages down. I wonder if the secretary for justice, on her half million dollar salary, would last more than a day doing their job? This is not political, just that these people are seriously down trodden by arrogant overpaid public service plutocrats and aloof and up themselves judges, who treat them like servants.
Trevor, please tell us more about what disruption is occurring in our court system. What suggestions do you have to fix this disruption (provided it is proved to be occurring)?
Jen, calling people names achieves nothing. What about some suggestions from you too.
Richard, you’re not keeping up. Courts around the country are being closed. Fines aren’t being collected. The backlog of work is mounting. Meanwhile the Ministry of Justice has walked away from bargaining. And no-one has seen or heard from the half-million-dollar chief executive for the past two months which is a disgrace. And their chief advocate is overseas. It’s not up to Jennifer and Trevor to come up with a solution. It’s up to the Ministry to get into meaningful negotiations.
Richard, maybe just agree to their pay claim? I’m sure MOJ could fund it from their overseas travel budget alone.
What I see as happening is that the minitry’s heirachy are attempting to keep their positions safe in the face of the National Government by attempting to offer a zero increase for the UNDERPAID in the ministry but are happy to keep their bonuses (last I heard it was $75,000). From what I have read it seems the UNDERPAID in the ministry have effectively taken a wage reduction due to the rate of inflation and the zero increase. Oh do forgive me the heirachy offered $750 gross with a performance review in July 2010. What this says to me is that be happy with the $500 in hand but don’t expect anything else, because unless you are a favourite in the eyes of your manager, you would have underperformed!! It also seems to me that the UNDERPAID staff are tired of the abuse over phones and at counters, having to multitask continually, having to teach their managers the job, advising lawyers and sometimes judges about new legislation and getting no recognition for how they keep the Justice system moving!
I applaud the UNDERPAID in the ministry for taking this stand which is costing them personally (loss of income & stress) for any time taken during strike action.
I agree with jak – it seems that yes, all government department heads have been given a mandate to save money and the way they are doing that is by keeping the UNDERPAID in all departments UNDERPAID
Those poor workers.
From the SSC website, annual remuneration for the year ending 31 June for the Secretary for Justice, $000
2004 370 – 379
2005 390 – 399
2006 430 – 439
2007 460 – 469
2008 470 – 479
2009 500 – 509
Crime doesn’t pay. Neither does the Ministry
The Ministry need to get back to negotiations as soon as possible. The staff members are just asking for a pay catch up with the rest of the public service and a fair and transparent contract. Annual performance reviews do little for staffs confidence in respects to being fair and transparent.
The adjourning of cases due to court closures is effecting victims/defendants/lawyers/judges and last but not least the STAFF. It is also enhancing the publics perception of bureaucracy at its finest but it is never the heirachy that field the sarcasm or abuse at the coal face it is the UNDERPAID WORKERS!!!!