The Health and Allied Workers Union is determined to bring justice to a grinding halt. Union members who work in courts as clerks, stenographers and interpreters in Gauteng are set to down tools later this month.The strike, if their demands are not met, will then roll out across the country indefinitely, affecting thousands of cases.Annually, 900,000 new cases are enrolled in the country's courts, or 3,600 new cases a day.The strike has been slammed by women and children's rights groups, who say the vulnerable will be severely and unfairly affected by the delays caused.The strike, which has been given an official green light, will involve nearly 5,000 court officials, with 60 Gauteng courts affected when workers down tools on October 28.Nehawu called the strike after the union failed to reach a compromise with the justice and the correctional services departments regarding its 21 grievances, which include:Tender corruption;Nepotism;Promotion of people without the necessary qualifications into posts not advertised; andEmployees on poor pay levels doing the work of higher-paid colleagues.Nehawu wants justice department director-general Nonkululeko Sindane fired because she has failed to respond to the union's complaints.The union also said the department was slow in implementing a 2013 public service and administration directive that stated that employees on lower levels, such as clerks and interpreters, should be absorbed into supervisory levels.Nehawu's Thulani Skosana said the union would hand a memorandum to Justice Minister Michael Masutha and director-general Nonkululeko Sindane.He said if they did not receive a satisfactory response to their grievances the union would go on an indefinite nationwide strike.Nehawu has 4,680 members working in the Justice Department.A Johannesburg court interpreter, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Some interpreters have been here for 20 years, yet they are still on levels 4 and 5."Then you have someone picked up from who knows where, they work for six months and then they make management."Justice Department spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga failed to respond to questions concerning the trade union's grievances .The National Prosecuting Authority said it was unaware of the strike and could not comment.Joan van Niekerk, International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect president, said it was unacceptable for court staff to go on strike."Find another way of dealing with the issues. The existing court roll backlog will increase, prolonging access to justice," she said...