Judicial Assistants Association slams 'humiliating' payment delays for justice system employees

Employees in Serbia's justice system are facing "humiliating" delays in receiving their performance bonuses, according to the Judicial Assistants Association. The association states that these bonuses, once intended as "stimulus," have become essential for the survival of employees and their families due to "catastrophically low and inadequate" base salaries.

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Employees in the justice system, like all citizens, have strict legal deadlines that they must adhere to. State bodies, banks, landlords, utility companies, and all others to whom employees have obligations have their deadlines. Only the payment of "stimulations" for the people who hold the country's legal system on their backs, it seems, does not have to have any deadline.

The association criticized the lack of transparency, noting that employees have no official information about payment dates. Instead, they rely on rumors and hallway conversations. This situation, the association argues, undermines the dignity of labor within the justice system.

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It is humiliating that employees do not even have official information about when the money will be paid, and instead of institutional transparency, employees in the justice system are forced to rely on rumors, hallway conversations, and unofficial statements.

While high-level judicial reforms are being discussed, the association points out that the system has failed at a fundamental level by not respecting its own staff. They are demanding that responsible parties ensure regular, predictable, and timely payment of these bonuses.

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While high-level debates about "major" judicial reforms are underway, the system has failed at the basic level – in respecting its own staff.

"If the state has been unable to systematically and permanently resolve the material situation of people in the judiciary for years, the least it owes its own system is to pay the funds it disburses to them on time," the association stated.

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If the state has been unable to systematically and permanently resolve the material situation of people in the judiciary for years, the least it owes its own system is to pay the funds it disburses to them on time.