Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Cape Verde Bar Association (OACV) today defended a “fair resolution” of disputes, but without delaying justice, regarding a case in which a hotel group sued the State for delays in the sector.
Hailing the “ positive results in reducing pending cases ” at the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) in the last judicial year, the OACV expressed concern about the fact that the highest judicial court in the country had revealed, in this process, “ a certain blame ” for the slowness of Justice.
At issue is a case in which the Spanish hotel group RIU denounced that the Cape Verdean justice system took nine years to decide a dispute that began in 2013, on the island of Boa Vista.
At the time, the company, the largest private employer in the archipelago, with more than 2,345 jobs, fired a worker, but he won the case, in a first instance decision, taken in four months.
However, the group appealed to the STJ and the case spent nine years in that higher court and was only decided a few months ago, confirming the decision in the first instance.
The company’s lawyer said on November 28 that, if the case had been decided in 2014, the company would have had to pay less than one million escudos to the worker (less than 9 thousand euros) in interim wages for a year, but, for Because of the delay for almost a decade, he had to pay more than 6 million escudos (54 thousand euros) to the former employee.
Two days later, the STJ issued a statement acknowledging that the process took seven and no more than nine years in this instance, having been judged in July 2021.
Cape Verde’s highest court also regretted that the company had “indefinitely” delayed compliance with court decisions, only to now claim compensation for damages resulting from its own slowness.
“In fact, as a result of strict management measures adopted in recent times, the slowness in the processing of labor processes no longer exists today ”, highlighted the STJ, giving as an example a case against the same company in which the decision was made known in about two years.
Understanding that this “can only mean a harbinger of new times in Justice ”, he committed to a “substantial reduction” and normalization of pending cases during this judicial year.
The Cape Verdean Minister of Justice, Joana Rosa, said a week ago that there are legislative measures in parliament to improve the performance of the courts, including a new Labor Procedure Code, which should be approved next year. The Week with Lusa
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