Concentration of judicial lawyers in the Obradoiro. Sandra Alonso
The strikers demand that Minister Pilar Llop be the one to negotiate with them while thousands of citizens are seriously affected by the strike
20 feb 2023 . Updated at 12:35 p.m.
It is one month and one day since the strike of lawyers from the Administration of Justice (LAJ) andthe conflict seems to be totally aground. The 15-hour meeting held in Madrid last week by representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the strike committee was useless. Rather the other way around, since in that meeting the great differences between the parties were revealed. Sources familiar with that meeting assure that the negotiators spent those 15 hours around a table hardly speaking to each other and at the end of the two parts reproaches and accusations were exchanged.
For now, the negotiations are stopped. The Justice lawyers’ strike committee assures that they are willing to hold a new meeting this Monday, but they demand the presence of the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, since they do not consider the usual interlocutor valid, the Secretary of State for Justice and number two in the ministry, Tontxu Rodríguez. During the morning of this Monday, the lawyers are holding assemblies throughout Spain to decide what their next steps will be. From the Ministry of Justice they maintain that up to now it is not expected that the minister will participate in the negotiations.
Sources close to the judicial lawyers assure that the strike committee has been working all weekend to find formulas that end the conflict. They consider it necessary for the minister herself to join the negotiating table to that it be she in the first person who assumes the direction of the situation and is in charge of resolving the biggest problem that the Spanish Justice system has always had, showing that it really cares about the rights of Spanish citizens.
Blocking of pensions and compensation
Meanwhile, judicial activity remains practically paralyzed, causing serious damage to citizens since the work of Justice lawyers (the former court clerks) is essential in courts and tribunals and no role is played without the supervision of these officials. The latest data indicates that in Galicia more than 6,000 warnings have already been suspended (more than 150,000 in Spain as a whole) that means that there have been no trials, hearings, appearances, statements and many other procedures with great repercussions for citizens. Since the strike began, on January 24, no sentences have been notified, severance pay is not paid, alimony is not processed in cases of separations or evictions are not carried out.
Concentration of judicial lawyers in Ourense last week. M. FERNANDEZ
The main demands of the officials, who began their strike on January 24, are a hooking clause to the law on the remuneration of judges and prosecutors to never charge less than 85% with respect to these two legal operators, provided they have the same seniority, and that their salary is not lower in small towns. Justice maintains that only one of the eleven demands remains to be fulfilled raised by the associations of former court clerks, which is the review of the productivity supplement, and considers their salary requests out of place, when their salaries are going to grow on average by 14.76% in three years.
The lack of agreement to end the lawyers’ strike portends judicial chaos
Jose Manuel Pan
According to the Secretary of State for Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez, The lawyers have refused the ministry’s proposal for a salary increase that will benefit above all those who earn less and insists on calling off the strike to continue negotiating. The new proposal presented by the LAJ insists on maintaining the down payment clause, which would mean referencing the amount of their remuneration to that of judges and magistrates. The representatives of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice They deny raising their wage demands and they accuse the ministry of maintaining an irresponsible attitude at the negotiating table.
The A Corua Bar Association figures at 2,000 cases paralyzed by the strike of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice
The A Corua Bar Association warns that the strike of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice it is undermining the rights to defense and access to justice and urges the parties to resume negotiations and dialogue urgently. The collegiate institution figures that the paralyzed cases in A Corua are around 2,000, many of them urgent and priority cases that involve people in vulnerable situation.
They also warn that the consequences of this strike are not only resulting in suspensions of proceedings, trials and hearings, but also that the lack of prior notice of the cancellations is causing damage to citizens in the form of unnecessary economic expenses, useless travel or absences from their jobs, for which they demand that announce suspensions well in advance in order to minimize the economic damages both for citizens and for the rest of the legal operators.
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