They demand a salary increase since their salary has been frozen since 2008
MADRID, 30 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The staff of the Foreign Service have begun their “Black Mondays” by gathering in front of embassies and consulates in different countries to denounce the fact that their salaries have not been raised since 2008 and the abandonment they feel on the part of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares , to whom they ask for a solution.
The CSIF, UGT and CCOO unions announced on Friday concentrations every Monday until July 25 of the labor personnel, who were encouraged to dress in black for the occasion.
The workers have published on social networks images of concentrations in front of Spanish dependencies in countries such as Italy, Belgium, Australia or Morocco. In addition to wearing black, they have displayed slogans such as “abandoned” or “ignored”.
In their call, the unions warned that the concentrations will be “the starting signal for the protests that will intensify in the fall if the Administration does not agree to negotiate.”
In this sense, they demand from the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the immediate convening of the Single PLEX Committee (employees working abroad), a dialogue body between this group and the Administration, which to date has not met despite the legal mandate.
If this request is not complied with, the unions warn that they will proceed “immediately” to file a complaint with the Labor Inspectorate “for the obstruction of the functioning of the PLEX Committee and the blocking of collective bargaining, without prejudice to the possible interposition of other legal actions that may correspond”.
Labor personnel abroad have been increasing pressure on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in particular and on the Administration in general in recent months. Workers in the UK have been on strike for several weeks starting in mid-March, while in other countries such as the Netherlands, Germany or Belgium there have also been walkouts and protests.
In other countries, such as Australia, Finland, Sweden, Norway or Italy, labor personnel have also joined in denouncing the situation in which they work, mainly the fact that their salaries have been frozen since 2008 and their loss of purchasing power in these years due to inflation in the countries where they work, and they have warned that they could join the mobilizations.
After knowing the call for the concentrations, from Foreign Affairs, Europa Press was assured that it is a priority issue for the department that Albares directs and that, within its powers, it is making “all possible efforts” to meet the needs of this collective. In this sense, the sources specified, “measures in the medium and long term” are already being studied.