The Judicial Administration Authority reported that liquidation costs for judges dismissed due to judicial reform will be paid on December 10. To collect damages, federal judges must appear with a witness at the Judicial Administration’s headquarters on Revolution Street in Mexico City. The announcement is seen as a major breakthrough for these workers, who until a few days ago did not know whether they would receive their settlement, but it also raised doubts about the risk of gathering hundreds of judges in the same place or about the seniority and salary criteria they would use to get compensation. In the face of these questions, the dismissed judges continue their protest until Wednesday.
On September 1, the change in Mexican judicial authority became effective. 800 federal judges took office and were elected in June, and hundreds of judiciary workers left. Since then, the dismissed have been waiting to receive the compensation stipulated by the constitution. The tenth transitional article of the judicial reform stipulates that judges and magistrates “whose duties end due to the rejection of their candidacy or failure to be elected by citizens for a new term are entitled to receive an amount equivalent to three months’ full salary, and twenty days’ salary for each year of service provided, in addition to other benefits to which they are entitled.”
On Monday afternoon, the Office of Judicial Justice provided the information in a statement about this “extraordinary individual payment.” The body that was born from the dissolved Federal Judicial Council had summoned the dismissed judges and justices of the peace from eight in the morning until seven in the evening in its Al-Thawra Building. “This appointment is a huge advance because in the beginning they didn’t even tell us if they were going to pay us, and now we have confirmation and a specific day,” says retired judge Marilyn Angeles. “The question is how they are going to pay us.”
Laid-off workers first raise a security problem. “Why are they forcing us all to leave at the same time? At some point in our judicial career, we were all threatened. How will they bring us all together? Will they provide us with security?” Angelis asks. The judges also question why payment must be made in person and accompanied by a witness, rather than electronic means to their accounts, where they received the salary until two months ago. The “indispensable” figure, according to the Office of Judicial Justice, also worries judges, especially because of the cost involved not only in traveling to the building in Mexico City but also to someone else, from states like Sinaloa, Sonora or Quintana Roo, for example, which are more than 1,000 kilometers away from the capital. “There are other, easier ways to get the money,” this federal judge concludes.
Moreover, the judges ask the OJ that the payment determined by the Constitution be according to the integrated salary (which includes benefits) and not according to the basic salary; That the outstanding supplementary pensions of retired workers are also paid “immediately” and that in seniority their entire judicial career is respected. These are the aspects that were not specified in the Commission’s statement, which is why the dismissed workers will organize a march next Wednesday between the headquarters of the federal judiciary. “The announcement was a very important advance, but we need clarity on what makes a big difference,” says Marilyn Angeles.
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