Remember that the Ministry launched improvements in terms of remuneration

MADRID, 2 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, Óscar López, has transmitted to the Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) –in the framework of the indefinite strike that began on January 24– that they are “an essential piece ” of the Judiciary and has expressed his “confidence” that the negotiations with the Ministry “can conclude in a reasonable and satisfactory agreement.”

In a letter sent to a member of the LAJ strike committee, to which Europa Press has had access, López has valued the work of the lawyers and has emphasized that for this reason “the Government, through the Ministry of Justice, only last 2022, launched the reform of the specific complement and two programs to improve the remuneration of the members of the body in terms of entries and registrations, and in terms of substitutions”.

This is how they have spoken from Moncloa before the letter that three LAJ associations sent to President Pedro Sánchez to ask him to adopt the “necessary measures” to redirect the conflict that he maintains with the department directed by Pilar Llop and avoid the indefinite strike that began on Tuesday January 24.

“I am writing to you in response to the letter that you have sent to the President of the Government dated January 16, together with which you have received a communication from the strike committee of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice requesting your mediation for the resolution of said conflict”, stated López at the beginning of the text signed on January 30.

López has thanked the information that the LAJ have transferred to him and has assured that they will take “note” in the Cabinet for “its timely analysis.” “In any case, I would like to convey our desire, as well as our confidence, that the negotiations can conclude in a reasonable and satisfactory agreement.”

In line, the director of the Presidency’s cabinet has insisted that the Executive is “very aware of the invaluable work that the LAJ carry out” to “guarantee the proper functioning of the public justice services.”

The Progressive Union of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (UPSJ), the Independent Association of Lawyers (AinLAJ) and the Illustrious National College of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice signed the joint communication that was sent to Moncloa on January 16 and appealed to the “authority” of Sánchez before the “insensitive and irresponsible management” of the Ministry.

The associations reproached that until that moment a transactional amendment to the Organizational Efficiency Law had not been introduced so that “the remuneration of the Corps of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice refer to those corresponding to the judicial career, in the proportion of improvement that considered adequate to the responsibilities inherent to this group”. “It depends only on the Government that you preside over to approve the modifications of the Royal Remuneration Decrees and the Organic Statute,” they told Sánchez.

Within the framework of the communication, the UPSJ, the AinLAJ and the National College of LAJ alerted the President of the Executive of the “seriousness” and the “extent of the risk of paralyzing all the ordinary activity of the courts and tribunals throughout the country, except for essential services”, which may generate the indefinite strike that they called for January 24 as a result of the labor dispute they have with the Ministry of Justice.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the strike reached what has been its maximum follow-up record. The convening associations assured that 84.6% had participated in the seventh day of the stoppage, while the Ministry of Justice recorded a 32.73% participation.

It is the highest data that both parties have communicated since the break began. Until yesterday, the convening associations had estimated between 73% and 81% follow-up. The department directed by Pilar Llop had registered a participation of between 18.9% and 28.23%.

In a statement issued yesterday Wednesday, the three associations stated that “the appropriation account has reached 5,000 million euros these days, when the average balance was around 4,500 million euros” and assured that “they have already been suspended more than 70,000 judicial proceedings at a rate of approximately 10,000 per day”.

The Secretary of State for Justice, Antonio ‘Tontxu’ Rodríguez, assured yesterday Wednesday that the LAJ strike is a “political” measure and that it is “out of place”. He stressed that “any type of economic claim that takes place in this strike does not make sense”, since the Ministry “has complied with all the agreements” reached with the representation of these workers.

In line, he pointed out that the LAJ “charges between 60 and 83% of what a judge or prosecutor charges”, all this despite the fact that “they will never be judges and prosecutors”, since “they have opted for an opposition who was a lawyer for the Administration of Justice”.

The conflict has its origin in “the lack of salary adequacy to the greater functions and responsibilities attributed by Law 13/2009, discharged to judges, and increased in successive reforms”, especially that of 2015, which -they denounce- – has caused an “unbearable imbalance”.

The conveners point out as a “trigger” of the conflict the agreement that Justice signed in December 2021 with the unions of the general bodies “without properly developing the salary adjustment to the latest procedural reforms provided for in the second paragraph of Additional Provision 157 of the Law 11/2020 of the General State Budget for 2021”.

Before the strike began, Llop asked the strike committee to avoid “maximalist positions” because, he said, they prevented “good agreements”.