PORT-OF-SPAIN (CMC):

Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma is scheduled to meet today with Attorney-General John Jeremie in a bid to avert a possible shutdown of the judiciary over the non-payment of acting allowances to employees.

At least 100 administrative and clerical staff have threatened to stay off the job starting Monday in support of the payment of the allowances, and the Public Service Association (PSA) warned that the situation "appears to be an explosive one which the association may not have control over".

"When people are aggrieved their behaviour cannot be controlled," warned the PSA's industrial relations officer Bonnie Alexis.

She said case management officers, judicial support officers and judicial secretaries, all positions created with the implementation of the new Civil Proceeding Rules in September 2005, have been performing their functions without adequate payment.