In a sharp rebuke of the Briceno government’s proposed legislative changes, United Democratic Party Chairwoman Sheena Pitts has publicly condemned the newly tabled Judges Salaries and Pension Bill, accusing the administration of entrenching systemic “judicial elitism” through unequal benefit frameworks.
The core controversy surrounding the bill lies in its starkly disparate eligibility requirements for retirement benefits across different tiers of the national judiciary. Under the proposed text, senior judges serving on the High Court and the Court of Appeal become eligible for full retirement benefits after completing just five years of service. In stark contrast, lower-court magistrates, who handle the vast majority of day-to-day judicial proceedings across the country, are required to complete 15 years of service before accessing comparable retirement protections that other public servants receive.
Pitts has framed this tiered system as a fundamentally unfair arrangement that erodes public trust in the integrity of the national justice system. In a public statement criticizing the policy, Pitts argued that the government’s priority in advancing this legislation reveals a commitment to prioritizing the interests of a small, elite group over broader equity within the judicial branch. “This government is openly telling us that it is ready to convene the National Assembly to pass legislation that benefits the few, not the many,” she emphasized.
While Pitts acknowledged that there is broad cross-party consensus that all judicial officers deserve fair compensation and a dignified retirement after years of public service, she stressed that the current draft of the bill creates unnecessary and unjust inequity between senior and lower-court judicial officers. The United Democratic Party leader has formally called on the Briceno administration to revise the legislation to eliminate the disparate eligibility rules and establish a fair, level playing field for all judicial professionals serving the country.