By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
STENOGRAPHERS staged a “sick out” yesterday, shutting down operations at the Magistrate’s Court, The Tribune understands.
According to sources, the court reporters are upset over pay and promotions as well as mould issues in the Nassau Street Courts.
The Tribune understands courts five, nine and 11 adjourned early because no stenographers showed up, but several other courts heard matters despite the absence of a court reporter.
One stenographer, who spoke to The Tribune under the condition of anonymity, said the “sick out” was in protest of poor working conditions and lack of compensation.
“We need equipment, we need better working conditions. Nassau Street has mould, they know it but they have us in there four and five days a week breathing that in. We have to use our own laptops, we are sharing equipment,” she said.
“Our promotions were put off again, everyone but the court stenographers are getting promotions and we work very hard. They are demanding us to work extra hours but they do not want to pay. We are sick and tired of this and we will not take it anymore.”
The source said they reached out to Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson and voiced their concerns more than six months ago, but to date, she has done nothing to help them.
“We spoke to her and she acted like she would do something, but nothing has changed,” the source said.
“This is not an easy job there are only about 30 of us and that is including Grand Bahama and we are expected to work all these courts. Then they made an announcement saying they are hiring more judges, but they aren’t bringing in any new reporters, so who will cover these courts. The machines they bought, still don’t work without someone operating them, so that was a waste of the people’s money and those machines are not as reliable as we are and they make many errors. We are sick and tired of the way we are being treated, and we will remain sick until our needs are heard,” she said.
Calls to Mrs Maynard Gibson were not returned up to press time. It is unclear if the stenographers will return to work today.
Comments
rory 10 years, 6 months ago
They have these things called computers now .. no need for STENOGRAPHERS.
banker 10 years, 6 months ago
Computers can't understand Bahamian talk.
HoustonCourtReporter 10 years, 6 months ago
A lot of people don't understand what court reporters do. In addition to sitting in court hours each day taking testimony verbatim from a variety of witnesses in a variety of cases involving different subject matter, on our off time, we using a computer word processing program -- and if we can afford it, support staff for proofreading or scoping -- to produce publication-quality transcripts in a short period of time. Producing a transcript takes from one to three times the amount of time the original proceeding consumed. Tape recorders can record sound, but trained humans still need to transcribe the tapes. In the real world, people speak quickly, speak over each other, speak with accents, ambient noise interferes with sound quality, and a live person sitting in the room can ask for repeats if necessary. There is no machine existing that can compete with a court reporter for a trustworthy record of proceedings. It is exhausting, tedious, time-consuming and often times thankless work, but our commitment to being a Guardian of the Record as an officer of the court is what gives us satisfaction. I want to let our brothers and sisters in Magistrate Court know that we have heard about your situation, and support your efforts.
HoustonCourtReporter 10 years, 6 months ago
If you were on trial, you would want the best, wouldn't you? And research has shown prices to purchase electronic recording equipment and transcribers equals court reporter salaries.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
for our courts to grind to a halt ,that would imply they were working and moving cases along at a reasonable rate..
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID