Human Rights Action (HRA) submitted five proposals and suggestions to the Ministry of Justice during the public consultation on the Draft Law on Salaries and Other Rights Related to the Exercise of Judicial and Constitutional Court Office.

The proposals concern two key issues of public interest: how long judges and state prosecutors should remain in office, and whether they should receive the so-called public officials’ compensation for one year or longer after voluntarily leaving office — issues that directly affect the efficiency of the judiciary and the state budget.

HRA proposed that judges, state prosecutors, and Constitutional Court judges should in future be allowed to perform their duties until the age of 67, since other citizens are allowed to remain employed until that age.

The age limit of 66 proposed by the Ministry of Justice creates inequality between professions, because recent amendments to the Labour Law have enabled employees in other professions in Montenegro to work until the age of 67. Premature departure from office in the judiciary is harmful because there is already a serious shortage of judges and state prosecutors. The departure of the most experienced among them will further undermine efficiency.

Regarding compensation after termination of office, the so-called public officials’ compensation, we proposed that this right be abolished in cases of resignation — because the compensation should protect those whose office ends against their will, such as due to expiry of mandate or permanent loss of capacity to perform the office, rather than serve as a financial incentive to leave office voluntarily.

We also proposed abolishing the extension of compensation payments for an additional year when the right to a pension is acquired during that period, because this allows resignations to be planned around pension eligibility and enables individuals to receive the full salary amount without performing the office. A one-year, and especially a two-year, paid leave is irrational at a time when the state is struggling with a backlog of cases.

It should be noted that Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina do not provide for such a right at all, while North Macedonia does not allow it in cases of resignation. In Croatia, only Constitutional Court judges have the right to compensation for a maximum of one year, while in Serbia it lasts three months, with the possibility of extension for another three months if the beneficiary becomes eligible for a pension during that period. In Kosovo, only the presidents of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, and the Supreme State Prosecutor, have this right.

Last year in Montenegro, more than EUR 278,000 was paid to judges and state prosecutors on the basis of the so-called public officials’ compensation, of which almost EUR 180,000 went to state prosecutors and nearly EUR 99,000 to judges.

At the same time, the state lacks 29 state prosecutors, 20% of the planned number, and 39 judges, 12%.

The same problem applies to other public officials as well. We believe it is necessary to amend the Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees in order to limit the right to compensation after termination of office. Last year, more than EUR 700,000 was paid to all public officials on this basis.

We recall that the NGO Action for Social Justice previously submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of Article 36 of the Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees, which provides for these compensations, but no decision has yet been made. We emphasize that in 2023 the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia abolished the right to compensation in cases of termination of office at personal request or dismissal, finding that it was contrary to the principle of the rule of law because it served only the private interest of a certain group of public office holders.

Finally, we proposed that the law regulate the salaries of trainees and advisers in the judiciary more adequately, unless this issue is regulated by a separate law. We proposed that trainees have the right to a salary at least equal to the minimum salary for level VII educational qualifications, and that advisers receive at least the average salary in Montenegro.

We expect the law’s proposer to consider and accept HRA’s proposals, or to respond to them before submitting the draft to parliamentary procedure.