Due to serious IT problems at the Public Prosecution Service that have persisted for months, “the loyalty of employees” of this organization “can no longer be taken for granted.” Prosecutors have become despondent and frustrated.
This is what Marc Fierstra, chairman of the Dutch Association for the Judiciary (NVvR, the professional association of judges and public prosecutors), writes in an unusually fierce letter to the Board of Attorneys General, the national leadership of the Public Prosecution Service. “The consequences of the ongoing IT problems at the Public Prosecution Service in combination with the persistently high workload and the announced cuts and shifts in the Public Prosecution Service budget” have soured the working environment, according to the union for magistrates. The board of the NVvR says it is “seriously concerned about the rapidly increasing dissatisfaction and unrest among our Public Prosecution Service supporters.”
In July of this year, the Public Prosecution Service was taken offline by management due to serious concerns about the security of its own digital work environment. All internet connections were closed and working remotely was no longer possible. This happened after “a signal came in” from the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) that there is a possible vulnerability. Public Prosecution Service employees were unable to use e-mail or the internet for weeks. In August, the Public Prosecution Service announced that it would be reconnecting IT systems to the internet in “phases”. This appears to have been only partially successful.
Wildcat
“The problems at the Public Prosecution Service are really enormous. The IT infrastructure is in very bad shape and the management has no idea how to get out of this desperate situation,” says Fierstra when asked. The NVvR chairman confirms that prosecutors at various public prosecutor’s offices are preparing a wildcat strike: prosecutors are considering refusing to hold a trial in criminal cases. “Emotions are skyrocketing on all sides. People no longer see the point. The management also hardly explains to the staff how to proceed.”
In response to growing dissatisfaction among its own staff and fear of spontaneous work stoppages, the management of the Public Prosecution Service has promised all employees “two charging days”. “Because of no longer being able to work from home and the impact this has on the private situation,” everyone gets two extra days off: on December 31 and January 2, people do not have to come to the public prosecutor’s office. It is a compensation for “the patience that Outlook requires of you” and as a thank you for the “perseverance”.
That gesture did not go down well with the staff. The Central Works Council of the Public Prosecution Service wants more compensation for the amount of overtime that has to be worked due to all the problems. “Two days off around New Year’s Eve, when the organization is already working at breaking strength, doesn’t mean much. This is too little too late. People feel they are not being taken seriously,” says Fierstra.
Every day is a surprise, but it often happens to us that we are at a hearing and cannot consult a file
Laptops that don’t work
The biggest complaint among prosecutors concerns the general slowness of the IT system. Almost no one can work from home. “Most officers have laptops that don’t work,” says one prosecutor. NRC spoke to three officers about the IT problems; because they fear repercussions they do not want to be named.
Several systems fail every day, with the Outlook mail program in particular not working. “Loading an email often takes at least five minutes, even if the system is ‘working’,” .
“Every day is a surprise, but it regularly happens to us that we are at a hearing and cannot consult a file because GPS [] it doesn’t. We also still don’t have access to email and office applications on the iPhones. I have not heard any information about when this will be repaired.”
The NVvR urges the Board to provide more clarity about the additional pressure that has arisen on the organization. “Employees lack the feeling that they are being listened to, which reduces job satisfaction. Public prosecutors do not know enough where they stand and are too often left in the dark when it comes to the choices the organization makes,” says Fierstra.
The request to the Board in the NVvR’s letter of November 11 to respond “at short notice” has not yet resulted in a response. A spokesperson for the College is late NRC know that they are “aware that the ICT problems that have persisted for years require a lot of extra effort from all colleagues and are very frustrating.”
The Public Prosecution Service management notes that “the past period has been particularly difficult due to the recent IT breach and its consequences. The fact that most criminal hearings were able to go ahead even during that period says a lot about the loyalty and special commitment of all employees. This is certainly not self-evident.”
Partly due to the additional expenditure involved in repairing information facilities, the Public Prosecution Service has to make cuts. This raises “understandable additional concerns” within the organization. The Board says it is “working hard non-stop to implement structural improvements in the ICT infrastructure step by step”.
The professional association NVvR wants the Board to quickly offer “substantive perspective” to employees. “They are the capital of the organization and make a fundamental contribution to the security of the Netherlands. They deserve your full support.”
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