AFTER a sit-in by fuming prosecutors over low salaries hampered proceedings in courts islandwide on Thursday, head of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, King’s Counsel (KC) – who though caught off-guard by the action – said the anger of her staff could be understood, given the poor treatment they received in the just-completed compensation review compared to other groupings.

“When I was made to understand how well the doctors had fared in the compensation review I thought that it was really a great pity that equal consideration was not given by the technocrats at the Ministry of Finance to prosecutors,” Llewellyn told journalists during a briefing at her office in downtown Kingston on Thursday afternoon.

“I think that is where the anger, angst, and the hurt of the prosecutors would be grounded because, let’s face it, we are in a very high-crime environment and it is only prosecutors who have to deal with the spectre of the security risks. I can tell you that. I have had several close calls, and I thought it was very regretful that the prosecutors were not treated with the same, dare I say, respect by the technocrats in the Ministry of Finance,” the DPP said.

On Thursday, operations at the Court of Appeal, the criminal courts and plea and case management courts in the Supreme Court, the High Court Division of the Gun Court, and the circuit courts in St James, St Elizabeth, Clarendon, and St Catherine were crippled as prosecutors called a meeting to address concerns regarding their “welfare, well-being and the way forward”, according to a group in a release signed ‘Concerned Prosecutors, ODPP’.

Only two courts which had senior deputy directors holding down the fort were able to proceed, the Jamaica Observer learnt.

Llewellyn, who said she learnt of the developments after the fact, told reporters that the majority of prosecutors had returned to base, except for two individuals who had called in sick. She said some prosecutors were on vacation leave. The ODPP has 58 prosecutors on staff. The DPP, however, could not definitively say how many prosecutors had taken industrial action.

She, however, noted that she has never refused members of her staff who have asked her to act as a buffer when they had concerns about salary bands but said she had not been consulted this time.

Llewellyn said upon confirming the situation she sought audience with Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck, KC, to meet with the representatives of the prosecutors. She said the justice minister has committed to doing so with the permanent secretary. According to Llewellyn, a commitment was given for Thursday afternoon, should the parties be interested.

In the meantime, the country’s chief prosecutor said lawyers in the public service have always been mistreated.

“I must confess to you, from my experience, I have always found that the technocrats — and it doesn’t matter which Administration is in power — I have always found a lack of understanding coming from the technocrats as it relates to the work that the lawyers in the service do, and I think that’s very unfortunate because every day you are looking in the newspapers at some of the very technical cases we are doing. You don’t have any idea of the work, the research we have to put in when we do some of these cases,” she said.

“We have to be very, very well-prepared. I have always heard, and I, too believe, that the technocrats, when they are crunching their numbers, have never been as fair to us as they have been to the medical doctors or even themselves,” Llewellyn declared.

In acknowledging that lawyers might have chosen to forego an appeal for her assistance because they were at the limit of their patience, she said, “I could see and feel the fact that they are hurt and they are hurting. They are tired like myself, they are running on fumes because the work is so hard and the hours are onerous, and though I recognise the concept of service above self, I have to pay great respect to how they feel.”

Llewellyn, in the meantime, said she could not offer any guarantees as to whether her staff would remain off the corridors of the courts today (Friday) but said she was guardedly optimistic that some agreement could be reached.

“Suffice it to say this is the situation today and it is regrettable I think that certainly, over the years, the office of the DPP has done very, very well where even through the crisis of COVID we never closed our offices. From the time I was a young Crown counsel officers at the DPP, officers in the public service have been unhappy because there has always been historically the feeling that somehow the technocrats at the Ministry of Finance have never fully understood the work of the judiciary and the legal staff,” she said, pointing out that in the last 10 to 12 years the volume of cases handled by prosecutors has tripled.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Finance, in a statement, said the Legal Officers Staff Association (LOSA), which represents all members of the legal profession employed to the Government of Jamaica, including prosecutors, signed the MOU on compensation restructuring with the Government on March 10, 2023. As such, it said, the new compensation arrangements, inclusive of all retroactive amounts, have been implemented for members of LOSA.

In stating that a follow-up meeting request by LOSA has not yet been granted to discuss “matters of concern to the association”, the finance ministry said the “recognised bargaining group for members of the legal profession employed to the Government of Jamaica is LOSA” and it recognises no other.

According to the ministry, on May 26 2023 a letter came from a group calling itself the “Concerned Prosecutors at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions” expressing dissatisfaction with compensation levels for prosecutors, but entailed no specific policy suggestion or request and did not express a desire for a meeting. It said the letter was not signed by an individual who could be contacted. It was signed, “Concerned Prosecutors ODPP”. In addition, the letter neither contained an e-mail address nor a telephone number.