2024-03-24 10:53:40
The first lawyers’ strike in our history is leaving behind situations that surely no one would have anticipated before.
Since last November 21, precisely the day after Félix Bolaños received the Justice portfolio from Pilar Llop, ex-officio lawyers from all over Spain have been requesting and achieving the suspension of trials in protest of the salary conditions under the that offer the right to free justice to citizens who, due to their income, are presumed unable to hire a private one.
In the Galician municipalities of La Estrada and Lalín, both in the province of Pontevedra, all the lawyers who were registered for the shift resigned, leaving the service deserted. It is the first time that such an extreme has taken place.
In reaction, the Pontevedra Bar Association automatically registered all members in these small cities, alleging that since free justice is a public service, it is “obligatory” to provide it. Starting next April 1, they will take the list in alphabetical order of the members and will begin to call to assist citizens who are having legal problems or who are victims of a crime.
The mandatory discharge solution taken will cause situations as Berlanguian as a member who has spent his entire career as a property administrator having to take on the defense of a detainee. Without ever having done it before or after more than 20 or 30 years without dedicating himself to the legal profession.
Belén García, general secretary of the only union that exists in the union and that is behind the national strike, ironically says in conversation with LA RAZÓN that with the imposition of the obligation to stand guard on shift it has been shown that it is “the last sign of slavery that remains in Europe”. If they still decide not to respond to the College’s call, they face sanctions or internal disciplinary proceedings, which remains to be seen what judicial consequences they may end up bringing.
In these four months of strike they have seen how judges and the Ministry of Justice itself have tried to end the strike by trying to hinder their right to exercise it.
First, Justice sent as an order a report prepared by a State lawyer in which it was stated that there was no right to strike in the legal profession and warned of the sanctions that those who, even so, decided to fight for would face in the Bars. their labor demands.
Public Lawyers who will hold a demonstration for their working conditions. © Jesús G. Feria.Jesús G. FeriaPhotographers
Later, the Constitutional Court (TC) issued an order in which it took away their right to strike or unionize, despite the fact that Venia is legally constituted as an organization in defense of the professional interests of lawyers.
The TSJM, for its part, certified in a ruling that Venia was constituted as a union in full accordance with the law and that article 18 of the Constitution provides all professionals with the rights to strike and unionize, with the exception of the Armed Forces. , Police Corps and Civil Guard. The ruling also indicated that, in any case, for lawyers not to have the right to strike, this would have to be expressly regulated in an Organic Law.
At the same time, they have raised attempts to desist from the strike to the European Commission because they understand that the Government is trying to curtail a fundamental right like this.
Also in the courts they have seen how the judge refuses to agree to the suspension and they, following the protocol of action prepared by Venia, appeal the order alleging that this matter is not within the actions that are grouped in the minimum services. They also require it as a preliminary matter in person before the court. If the above does not work, file a new appeal for violation of the fundamental right to strike.
Since the minimum services have not been established, they have been the ones who, following those established by the lawyers of the Administration of Justice in their recent strike, have agreed that they will attend to all the matters of the shift that affect people detained or in prison, that are of gender violence, that has minors as victims and has to do with alimony, or that is labor-administrative litigation and concerns violations of fundamental rights.
The goal is, García explains, not to harm in any case with the strike those individuals who, due to the circumstances of their case, are seriously affected by the suspension.
They continue in the fight since the Ministry of Justice has not yet agreed to meet with them and listen to them, even though they explain from Venia, they have requested it in three letters and through people linked to the PSOE. However, they criticize, he speaks punctually with the Bar Council, whom the union calls “patrons” of the professional sector.
After the massive concentration last February 3 in the center of Madrid that brought together more than 5,000 public defenders from all the provinces of our country, the suspensions continue and in cities like Valladolid or Bilbao they demonstrate once a year without fail. the week so that their demands for better pay for guards and with better conditions become their reality sooner rather than later.
#Europes #slavery #service