According to South African media reports, court interpreters
across the country have gone on strike after failing to receive
promised salary increases. The Justice Department has blamed a
computer virus for the delay.
The pay dispute between the interpreters and the Justice
Department has been rumbling for some months. Success Mataitsane,
general secretary of the National Union of Public Servants and and
Allied Workers, has claimed that the department agreed to upgrade
salaries from 1 July, but because they have not been forthcoming,
workers have gone on national strike.
Charles Shelembe of the KwaZulu-Natal committee of interpreters
said that the Justice Department had sent workers three letters
telling them about salary increases, but that no money had been
forthcoming.
Heinrich Augustyn of the Justice Department was reported to have
claimed that the W32/Blaster-A worm had
caused the delay. According to Augustyn the virus is being dealt
with, and interpreters should receive their pay rises on or before
15 October.
"Computer viruses can disrupt regular company operations such as
email, payroll and finances. In this case we're seeing the knock-on
effects - justice itself is being held up by a virus throwing a
spanner into the works," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos. "All organisations need to practise safe
computing to ensure they are minimising the threat of attack by
computer virus."
A number of court cases in South Africa have been adjourned as a
result of the industrial action.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.