Deadline extended to December for court administration staff

An extension until December to achieve permanent status by the end of the year. By that point, the permanent integration of all court clerks into the administration of justice will have been completed. The extension will be the subject of a decree-law to be considered by the Council of Ministers on Thursday 24 September.

The measure concerns 1,257 young legal professionals who have so far been excluded from the large-scale summer recruitment drive covering 6,919 posts, with subsequent controversy focusing instead on the methods used to fill vacancies in court registries. A minority, intended to support the newly established summary proceedings divisions in order to examine applications for international protection. However, in the absence of any confirmation – even on a temporary basis – the contracts will expire next Wednesday, at the end of September.

In recent hours, concerns and calls on the Ministry for action consistent with organisational policies of judicial offices, which had enabled the targets agreed with Europe under the NRRP to be met and exceeded, with a view to improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system and civil justice, reducing the duration of first-instance proceedings to less than a year. 

According to the ANM, the contribution of court clerks still on the waiting list ‘has been crucial in recent years to achieving the objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and thus to supporting the justice system. To forgo their services would mean causing serious damage to courts throughout Italia, with a significant impacton the duration of trials and, consequently, on the entire justice system. It is the public who would bear the brunt of this’.

And last Monday, the CGIL organised a day of national action, with demonstrations and meetings at many courts, to press for the extension of contracts due to expire.