Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cape Verdean businesspeople today defended, in statements to Lusa, changes to the country’s labor laws, which include deadlines and responsibility for Justice, after a case in which a hotel group sued the State for slowness in the sector.
“There are things that can be improved: the issue of deadlines. The question of the functioning of the judicial machine. Who doesn’t have a deadline in the judicial system? Only the judge. Is this reasonable? We live in a system where everyone has deadlines and if they don’t meet the deadline, they lose”, described the president of the Barlavento Chamber of Commerce (CCB), Jorge Maurício.
For the leader of that business association that represents the islands of Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Sal and Boa Vista, the deadline is a “determining and decisive element” and the fact that it does not exist “totally conditions” the rules of the judicial game in Cape Verde.
For Jorge Maurício, the issue of the slowness of Justice is not about more investment in the courts and having more people, but rather it is “a question of discipline, of defining rules, establishing deadlines, having more responsibilities and having a more transparent system ”.
The reaction follows a media case, in which the Spanish hotel group RIU requests compensation of 6 million escudos (54 thousand euros) from the State because the Court took more than seven years to decide a case that began in 2013.
The president of the Sotavento Chamber of Commerce (CCS), Marcos Rodrigues, also defended “penalties”, but said he is “a little cautious”, asking if judges have all the conditions to work more quickly and respond to more cases.
“This all has to be seen as a whole”, understood the leader of the largest business association in the country, with more than 460 members, covering the islands of Maio, Santiago, Fogo and Brava.
The person in charge defended a reform of labor law in Cape Verde that facilitates Justice itself, understanding that the delay is due to “various mechanisms” that the sector itself creates to provide some security, but which sometimes ends up being slow.
Shortly after the RIU group triggered this case, the Cape Verdean Minister of Justice, Joana Rosa, said that there are legislative measures in parliament to improve the performance of the courts, including a new Labor Procedure Code, which should be approved in the next year.
In statements to Lusa, the leaders of the two business associations in Cape Verde suggested even more investment in arbitration centers to “help a little more” businesspeople, and beyond, to resolve some problems, instead of everything ending up in court.
Regarding this matter, in November the CCB and CCS signed a protocol with the Arbitration Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Portugal to help speed up legal proceedings.
Marcos Rodrigues said, however, that even if Justice is slow, the positive point in Cape Verde is that citizens and companies can question the State and all its stakeholders.
Highlighting the importance of the sector for the development of any society, the head of CCS also defended “collective action”, from the issue of organization, functional, procedural, legislation, interpretation and transparency of processes.
Regarding the RIU case, the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) recognized that the process took seven years in this instance, having been judged in July 2021, while the Bar Association (OACV) defended a “fair resolution” of disputes, but without delaying justice.
In 2021, the State of Cape Verde was ordered by the Judicial Court of the District of São Vicente to pay compensation of 9 million escudos (81 thousand euros) to a company based on that island, due to slow legal action.
According to the report on the situation of Justice, in the 2022/2023 judicial year there were 294 civil and administrative actions against the State in the courts, with requests for compensation of 4.9 billion escudos (435 million euros), minus 4 % of the amount requested in the previous year.
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