Judicial lawyers gathered this Tuesday in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice to support the strike committee. Eduardo Parra | EUROPAPRESS
Officials say that figure is “invented by the ministry”, which they accuse of leaking the content of the negotiations.
28 feb 2023 . Updated at 11:39 p.m.
The lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) They demand a salary increase of about 1,100 euros per month, which would mean a salary increase of about 14,000 euros per year. “This is an unaffordable increase, not only for the treasury, but for society as a whole,” explained the Secretary General for Innovation and Quality of the Public Justice Service, Manuel Olmedo, hours after meeting on Tuesday with the judicial lawyers in which it is the fourth attempt to negotiate to end the strike initiated by the LAJ on January 24.
The general secretary thus justified the failure of the four meetings held with the lawyers in the last ten days. He explained that if the claims of the lawyers were addressed, “would mean a linear increase in the payroll of all of them of 1,100 euros per month», with which the total amount would mean a disbursement for the Administration of Justice of almost 61.5 million euros, «more than what is allocated to the Free Justice Service in Spain». The secretary general accused the LAJ of lack of interest in reaching an agreement by ensuring that “The committee has not considered at any time ending the strike as a gesture of willingness to negotiate». In any case, the high office of the ministry calls “to avoid further harm to citizens and put their interests before the merely economic ones shown so far by the strikers.”
From the Ministry of Justice they assure that A remuneration increase for the group of lawyers of more than 14.5% has already been approved in the last three years. This increase was made retroactively and the LAJ are already receiving it on their payrolls. The same sources add that “none of the proposals put forward by the strike committee refers to improvements in the Public Justice Service, focusing solely on compensation claims.”
In its proposal, the Ministry of Justice states that it has offered salary increases for a total of 1,906 lawyers belonging to groups III, IV and V, with increases reaching 5,000 euros per year in more than 700 cases. “This proposal has been repeatedly rejected by the negotiating committee,” they say from Justice. They also add that the lawyers “have not modified their position or made any assignment, persisting in its objective of requesting to collect 85% of what the judges receive». That is the aspect known as the down payment clause, a measure that the lawyers have been demanding since the beginning of the indefinite strike.
Negotiation filtering
The leaking of data from the negotiations has not sat well with the judicial lawyers and they accused the Ministry of Justice of “breaking the only agreement that had been reached so far, which was to keep the content of the talks confidential». But they also say that he is lying, and that the figure of 1,100 euros “is invented directly by the ministry and that it does not correspond at all” to the requests of the lawyers. The Galician Juan José Yáñez, who is part of the negotiating committee, assures that “not even the comrade who saw himself benefited the most would come close to those figures.”
The strike committee maintains that the ministry gives “a manipulated view of the negotiations.” Requested «switch to using lights and stenographs» in the meetings, but that the Secretary General refused «saying that this was detrimental to the negotiations». Upon learning of the leak of the salary increase requested by the lawyers, they maintain that it has been proven that Manuel Olmedo “was lying and only intended to blow up the negotiations.”
The lawyers assure that their positions are based on the agreements reached in April 2022, but that in the meetings they did not manage to quantify the amounts that they would suppose per month, as explained by Yáñez. They say that up to nine of their proposals had no economic content and that the offer of Justice regarding the payment based on population groups is different from that of April, so that it only refers to a third of the LAJ, and half of them it only means ten euros a month.
The lawyers want to negotiate with the minister
Meanwhile, the lawyers accuse the Ministry of Justice of not wanting to negotiate and of “persisting in the destruction of Justice.” They assure that «The Government has no intention of solving the strike of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice and it persists in blocking public service and harming citizens.
Sources from the strike committee recall that they attended a fourth meeting with the ministry on Tuesday presenting a new resolution proposal “and it has found itself once again with ministerial closure and immobility». They assure that they have changed the negotiating framework “and they want the negotiation to continue in writing. If what the government intends is to avoid the media, they prick in the bone, since we will fully report the serious consequences of the ministerial attitude.
The lawyers say that the current negotiating team of the ministry does not have the capacity to reach agreements, so they demand that the Minister of Justice be the one to lead the negotiations. “As unbelievable as it may seem to public opinion, Pilar Llop still does not take the lead in this serious conflict, preferring to visit cheese factories.” They ensure that the Government ignores the mandate of the Congress of Deputies, the autonomous communities, legal operators, professionals and citizens, “who urge that a satisfactory agreement be reached that allows the ordinary activity of the courts and tribunals.”
Accumulated delay of two years
The strike committee maintains that it is obliged to “denounce before public opinion the destruction that the ministry is causing in the Administration of Justice, with the approval of the Government, it is of capital dimensions, already anticipating an added delay of two years to the existing one in the processing of legal proceedings, with the consequent economic cost in recovery plans. Ministerial inaction and intransigence is going to cost all Spaniards money.”
Judges and prosecutors join the salary claims in full conflict with the lawyers
Jose Manuel Pan
The Ministry of Justice has come up with another conflict when it has not yet been able to resolve the one that it maintains with the lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ). In the midst of a complicated negotiation that seems to not have a quick solution, Now it is the judges who are also demanding a salary increase. In a joint statement, the four Spanish associations of judges report that they have requested “the urgent and immediate convening” of a meeting with the Ministry of Justice “to undertake the adaptation of our salary remuneration and to effectively comply with Law 15 /2003».
Keep reading