Justice ensures that the strike has had the support of 28.2% while the strike committee speaks of 81%
MADRID, 24 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Lawyers from the Administration of Justice (LAJ) from different courts and tribunals in the country demonstrated on Tuesday from Plaza de Callao in Madrid to the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, within the framework of an indefinite strike, to demand a salary increase equivalent to increased workload they suffered years ago without being compensated then.
“We are here really outraged. We are doing a strike for the first time in the democracy of the Administration of Justice throughout the national territory,” said Carlos Artal, a member of the strike committee, in statements to Europa Press.
Some lawyers dressed in gowns and others loaded with banners and megaphones have gathered this afternoon in response to the call made by the three associations of the union — the Progressive Union (UPSJ), the Independent Association (AInLAJ) and the Illustrious National College of Lawyers– who have also been responsible for the call for an indefinite general strike that began this Tuesday.
“What we are asking for is that the agreements we have reached be carried out,” Artal stressed during the demonstration. “We are not asking for increases, but what we have recognized,” he added, later specifying that said increase was already set in Additional Provision 157 of Law 11/2020 on the General State Budget for 2021.
Accompanied by the National Police, they have left the Plaza de Callao towards the Gran Vía, where the agents have had to cut part of the traffic so that the demonstration can advance towards the Ministry. Shouting “we are not judges, we are not prosecutors, we are national superior lawyers” they have responded to the statements made yesterday Monday by the Secretary of State for Justice, Antonio ‘Tontxu’ Rodríguez, at a press conference.
The high official of the Ministry, at a press conference, stressed that the indefinite strike promoted by the three associations “does not have any labor reason”, but rather “clear political reasons” and stressed that “any claim by this group” was “out of place” because “they earn between 79% and 140% more than other officials of the Administration of Justice of the same levels”. “The LAJ are not judges, they are not prosecutors and they will not be,” he added.
This Tuesday, the LAJ strike committee has made Rodríguez’s words ugly. “Instead of trying to mediate, because the other way around, it fuels the conflict. What it has achieved is that many colleagues who did not intend to exercise their right to strike join in,” Artal assured, while influencing the petition they made yesterday Monday for the Secretary of State to be dismissed in Justice.
The demonstration has advanced to the doors of the Ministry of Justice, where the lawyers have sung songs in direct reference to the Secretary of State and the minister. “Tontxu, Pilar, come out to negotiate”, they have clamored in front of the headquarters at Calle San Bernardo, 62.
Patricia Gimeno, LAJ of a court of First Instance in Barcelona and member of the strike committee, has assured Europa Press that she has traveled this Tuesday from Catalonia to demonstrate before the Ministry. “We want the agreements we reached in April 2022 to materialize”, he said while recalling that the LAJ already went on strike last year and that Justice told them that they had to “have faith” and that “the pacts would materialize”.
During the mobilization, the strike committee has ensured that “despite abusive minimal services” the LAJ have supported the start of the indefinite strike with “81% follow-up”.
The figures handled by the Ministry of Justice are different. According to the available data, corresponding to provinces, autonomous cities and central bodies, the department led by Pilar Llop has reported that the follow-up to the LAJ strike this Tuesday was 28.23%.
In the Supreme Court (TS), the conveners have assured Europa Press that this first day of strike has been a success, calculating its follow-up at around 60%.
In the Criminal Chamber, for example, of the four LAJ assigned to it, one is on leave -for which reason he has neither worked nor stopped- but the other three have joined the strike.
It should be remembered that this Second Chamber is waiting these days for the allegations of those convicted by the ‘procés’ to arrive, the State Prosecutor’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to be able to carry out the review of the sentence in accordance with the penal reform that has eliminated the sedition and modified embezzlement.
From the Ministry of Justice they have insisted in recent days that the first measure, linked to the modification of the royal remuneration decrees to make effective the union agreement adopted in December 2021, was approved in April 2022 and represented an increase on a retroactive.
As he explained, this implies an “increase in the salary mass of lawyers and lawyers of more than 10 million euros” and supposes “an increase of 5.26% of the average annual salary of the body” of LAJ, additional to the 8% (9 .5% depending on the evolution of the economy) that in general will be experienced by all public employees.
In this sense, the Ministry stressed that “in three years the average salary of each lawyer will increase by an average of 14.76%, unparalleled in public administration.” On the sidelines, he stressed that a program has been approved that has increased the remuneration for simultaneous entries and registrations from 30 to 110 euros.
He also stressed that those in charge of the Civil Registry in those towns in which the new model has been implemented already receive the amounts committed, responding to the principle of equal pay for equal responsibility, through extensions of working hours and productivity.
For the Secretary of State, Justice has “complied with what the associations have been demanding.” Rodríguez has assured that the strike “far exceeds union and labor objectives” and has recalled that the associations “are not unions” and that, therefore, participation in collective bargaining is not recognized in the Constitution.
