Armenian court staff go on strike

Employees of the Armenian Administrative Court have gone on strike after authorities reportedly failed to keep their promises of salary increases.

Armenia’s Ministry of Justice confirmed that the employees of the Administrative Court went on strike on Monday and that since 2023 they have taken “all possible measures” to obtain higher salaries by raising the issue “at different levels and by different means”.

“We hope that judicial officers will continue their work with a high sense of responsibility and give importance to the interests of justice,” the statement said, adding that they hoped that if employees could not continue working at their current salaries “for personal reasons,” they would instead find jobs in “better-paying areas” until the salary issue was resolved.

A judge’s assistant told Tert.am Authorities said on condition of anonymity that they had promised them a salary increase on July 1, but later reneged on that promise. They added that the authorities had also cancelled the employees’ bonus payments.

The assistant said that the strike also extended to assistants, clerks and secretaries and that they had sent the government a letter signed by all striking employees with their demands.

“Colleagues from Vanadzor, Gyumri and Sevan have joined us. The problem affects all courts. Several employees have turned down good offers (for other jobs) because they thought their salary would increase. But it remains at $80,000-90,000 ($200-230),” the assistant said.

Another employee of the administrative court told the Russian state news agency Sputnik Armenia Employees have been promised salary increases several times in the past six months.

“Last December they said in January, then they said in July, now July has come, they say we will present the project in January, and this has been going on for several years now,” the employee said.

The workforce announced that they would continue the strike until they received a clear answer to the question of whether the authorities would increase their salaries.

In December 2023, President of the Supreme Judicial Council Karen Andreasyan published a open letter addressed to “Santa Claus and all nice people”, in which he said that the workload of the Administrative Court’s employees had reached a record high.

“Court officials (assistants, secretaries, bailiffs, etc.) today receive a salary of between 100,000 and 200,000 pounds ($260-520) and do hard work that is extremely important for the fate of all of you,” he said, calling for an increase in their salaries.