25 June 2024
Staff at the Armenian Administrative Court have gone on strike after the authorities reportedly reneged on their promises to increase salaries.
Armenia’s Judicial Department confirmed that the Administrative Court’s staff went on strike on Monday, stating that they had taken ‘all possible actions’ to secure higher salaries by raising the issue ‘at different levels and through different means’ since 2023.
‘We hope that judicial officers will continue their work with a high sense of responsibility, giving importance to the interest of justice’, the statement said. They added that if staff could not continue to work under their current salaries ‘due to personal circumstances’, they hoped they would instead find jobs in ‘higher paid fields’ until the salary issue could be resolved.
One judge’s assistant told Tert.am on condition of anonymity that the authorities had promised them a pay raise on 1 July, but later reneged on this promise. They added that the authorities had also cancelled employees’ bonuses.
The assistant said the strike included assistants, clerks, and secretaries, and that they had sent a letter to the government signed by all striking employees announcing their demands.
‘We were joined by our colleagues from Vanadzor, Gyumri, and Sevan. The problem concerns all courts, several employees did not accept good offers [for other jobs], thinking that their salary would increase, but it is the same ֏80,000–֏90,000 ($200–$230),’ said the assistant.
Another employee of the Administrative Court told Russian state news agency Sputnik Armenia that staff had been promised higher salaries several times over the past six months.
‘Last December they said in January, then they said in July, now July has come, they say that we will present the project in January and it has been going on like this for several years now,’ said the employee.
The staff vowed to continue their strike until they receive a clear answer as to whether the authorities would raise their salaries.
In December 2023, the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Karen Andreasyan, published an open letter addressed to ‘Santa Claus and all the kind people’ in which he said that the workloads of administrative court employees had reached a record high.
‘Court officials (assistant, secretary, bailiff, etc.) today receive a salary of ֏100,000–֏200,000 ($260–$520) and perform hard work that is extremely important for the fate of all of you’, he said, calling for an increase to their salaries.
