Employees of the Tirana Court administration have petitioned for their salaries not to remain hostage to the institutional clash over magistrates’ pay. In a letter addressed to the Ministry of Finance and the High Judicial Council, they call for the immediate unblocking of salaries and a clear separation of their case from the debate affecting another category of the system.
Request: salaries to be processed immediately
In the petition, the court administration requests the immediate processing and payment of salaries, as well as clear information on the concrete measures and the deadline within which payment will be made.
According to the employees’ argument, there is no legal basis for the judicial administration that would justify the suspension or blocking of payment. They oppose having their case treated as part of the institutional debate over the calculation of magistrates’ salaries.
Employees: we are bearing the burden of a conflict that does not concern us
The letter states that the administration has continued working without interruption and has fulfilled duties related to the court’s daily functioning, despite the fact that salaries have not been paid.
According to them, non-payment cannot be justified by an institutional deadlock involving another category of the justice system. The employees claim they are directly facing the financial consequences of a conflict in which they are neither parties nor responsible.
Pressure on the responsible institutions
At its core, the request is directed at the Ministry of Finance to intervene to unblock the administration’s salaries, without making this process conditional on the issue of magistrates. The petition emphasizes that the problematic items have been identified in the payroll and that this, in their view, should be enough to separate the administration’s salaries.
This wording raises another question about how the payment process is being managed in the justice system, when a blockage related to one category is also affecting other employees who claim they have no connection to the institutional conflict.
Warning of legal measures and non-attendance at work
The employees demand that the situation be resolved within the shortest possible reasonable timeframe, with full payment of arrears and the restoration of normal salary payments.
If the failure to process payments continues without a concrete solution, they warn that they will consider institutional and legal measures to protect their rights, including not showing up for work. The petition stresses that the obligation to work cannot be separated from the institution’s obligation to pay for the work performed.
The position of the Tirana Court administration highlights a tension that goes beyond the formal debate over magistrates’ salaries: when institutions fail to resolve their own deadlocks, the cost is passed on to the most vulnerable employees in the system.
So far, their demand is clear: the salaries of the judicial administration must be separated from the institutional conflict and must not remain hostage to a blockage that, according to them, has no legal reason to affect this category.