Brussels: youth judges release juvenile delinquents since Monday morning – © All rights reserved
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Since Monday, the Brussels youth judges have implemented what they had announced. No more minors brought before the emergency court this Monday morning are detained. “We cannot take care of their case and they are therefore released by default, we can only assume the usual appointments from our agenda, we will see them later. As long as we don’t have a confirmed clerk engagement, the situation will persist ”, confirms Michèle Meganck, judge at the Brussels youth court.
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They wrote it last week in a letter to Minister of Justice Koen Geens (CD&V) for to denounce the lack of staff (especially clerks) they have faced for several years. This Monday, June 29, the judges therefore put their threats into effect.
In a reaction to Belga, the minister’s office indicated, last week, that it is aware of the situation of the judicial staff of the French-speaking court of first instance in Brussels, which is “indeed serious“.
“The court staff unions have already raised this issue and consultation with the unions is planned for July“, added the firm Geens.
►►► Read also: Coronavirus: Judges and social workers struggle to protect young people at a distance
“The number of clerks and employees has never been so low.“This would mean that five out of fourteen clerks are currently missing.”Throughout the Covid crisis, however, employees, clerks and magistrates did their utmost to continue operating the court“, continue the judges and the clerks who also started last Tuesday 59-minute work stoppages every day of the week.
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Florence Bouffioulx Registrar delegate to the Brussels youth court explains the difficulty of this work and the lack of staff in the service that led to this strong action.
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Reinforcements have been promised. For the Brussels Court of First Instance, there are thus 45 procedures in progress for a post of registrar and 21 posts for administrative staff were opened last year. With these 66 people, court staff would reach 90% of the cadre. The filling of these statutory posts is however difficult and slower than expected, deplores the minister’s office. And the court is faced with numerous absences due to illness and a large number of departures.
Faced with the emergency, it was notably agreed in March to allocate 17 contractual positions, for which recruitment can be carried out more quickly than for statutory employees.
The consultation was apparently scheduled for this week but has been postponed at the request of the Chief Clerk. A new date has not yet been set.
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