Court workers are at their wits end as the grandly-termed “new judicial map” prepares to rewrite their lives from September 1.
Many face horrendously long journeys into work as courthouses around the country are suddenly forced to change location.
As protesters take to the streets, waving placards “against the politics of closure”, as many as two million court processes are reported to be shuffled backwards and forwards by email.
“It’s an incredibly difficult job,” court workers’ syndicate boss Fernando Jorge told reporters.
Meantime, elsewhere, court business is still going ahead in containers as courthouses like Faro are extended to take on extra business.
As the chaos spirals towards Monday, September 1, 200 workers are reported to have entered official complaints over the way they are being treated.
One told RTP news: “I have worked in this court for 27 years – never being late for a day – and now suddenly I will have to work 70 kilometres away, with no one explaining how I am meant to get there.”
RTP reported that as many as 7,000 staff will be affected by the opening of 23 new courts and the closure of 47 others.
Readers may remember that the Socialists under António José Seguro have pledged to reopen all the closed courts if they are voted into power in 2015’s national elections.
Seguro told an audience in May: “I want to be very clear and very direct in response to the question of what would happen to the courts which this government is going to shut if the PS was in government: we would make justice – and making justice is reopening the courts.”
It’s a statement many will be considering as they travel those extra miles to work every day from September 1.
