The threat of collapse looming over the Spanish courts is growing ever more serious. Lawyers for the judiciary will continue the indefinite strike that began on January 24 after several partial strikes over the previous months over a failure to reach an agreement with the government over wage and job improvements that were partially demanded by one of each. The 15-hour meeting held by the strike committee of former justice secretaries at the Justice Ministry from five p.m. to nine this morning on Thursday failed to resolve a crisis that organizers of the work stoppages said have caused the suspension of 152,000 court cases and hearings. The civil servants’ strike committee accuses them of not having made a “concrete offer” to fulfill their demands and that the ministry “limited itself to repeatedly demanding immediate resignation without a concrete promise”. The judiciary has accused the lawyers of leaving the negotiating table, which they deny.
The follow-up to the strike also affects the functioning of the Supreme Court, which was already in a delicate situation as it was not possible to fill the vacancies due to the PP’s refusal to fill the General Council of the Judiciary. In addition to the closure of the land registry, the consequences also include the paralysis of the judicial consignment account, which, according to the lawyers, means that 560 million euros are blocked and therefore awaiting extradition.
The spokesman for the strike committee, Juan José Yáñez, holds a notebook on the adequacy of the salaries of the LAJ outside the doors of the ministry in Madrid this Friday. Carlos Lujan (European Press)
The outcome of the first meeting between the parties after more than three weeks of strike has put further pressure on the negotiations, although the day before Justice Minister Pilar Llop had reacted “sensitively” to the demands of the lawyers, declaring “candid” in a questioning by the PP in Congress for dialogue”. “Minister, solve the labor problems that affect your ministry and also prosecutors, judges and coroners,” demanded the popular MP Luis Santamaría Ruiz.
The meeting of the strike committee, composed of the National College of Lawyers, the Progressive Union of Lawyers (UPSJ) and the Independent Association of Lawyers (Ainlaj) and various ministry officials, headed by the Secretary of State for Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez, did not help to unravel the crisis. The disagreement is complete, as shown by the huge difference in the data transmitted by the judiciary and lawyers from overseeing the strike: the organizers estimate that participation in the strikes ranges from at least over 70% to at most 85%, according to the Ministry lowers it to a range between 19% and 34%. 50 lawyers from Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Galicia and Aragon gathered in front of the Ministry’s entrance at the start of the meeting with exclamations of “Yes we can!” and “Llop resign!”.
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The judiciary has released a statement stressing that the lawyers have risen from the negotiating table after “raising their demands without proposing an alternative”. Tontxu Rodríguez expressed his surprise at the strike committee’s position, which he described as “unusual and contrary to good faith in negotiations”. “When you sit at a negotiating table, you have to start with the demands that were originally made and be prepared to make concessions; the only proposal made by the Justice Department’s lawyers tonight shows a clear lack of will to reach any kind of agreement,” Rodríguez said.
One of the main demands of the 4,441 lawyers of the Judicial Administration in Spain is to receive 85% of the salary of judges and prosecutors, which would mean an average increase of 600 euros per month. The lawyers belong to Group A1 of civil servants, the highest in the rank of administration. His salary ranges from 37,697 to 57,722 euros at the court (plus variable remuneration); and between 42,554.92 and 58,979.72 euros in the Judicial Office, according to the ministry.
“We believe it would be appropriate for our responsibility to base our salaries on 85% of judges’ and prosecutors’ salaries,” says Juan José Yáñez of the UPSJ. According to several lawyers consulted, the lawyers charge around 65% of the judges’ salaries. The labor dispute has its origins, according to the strike committee, in “the lack of a salary adjustment due to the greater functions and responsibilities conferred on the judges by Law 13/2009 and increased in successive reforms, notably that of 2015” when the judicial offices began to operate on. The lawyers not only direct them, they also direct the operation of the courts, so their work is key to the day-to-day transfer of the courts.
The lawyers accuse the minister of having gone almost a year without fulfilling what she believes to be a commitment made in April 2022 to “update” the remuneration system of this body and “link it proportionally to that of the judicial career”. Justice denies signing the pledge and says the pay rise is unfeasible. “It is one of the organs of administration that has experienced the highest tax increase,” Llop said in parliament on Wednesday. The strike committee countered that the increase they were asking for was not a linear one, as all civil servants had received, but the salary increase mentioned for their greater responsibility.
Another issue that the strike committee says the judiciary appears to be “studying” is the supplement for the destination where lawyers perform their duties. “For a reason that is difficult to understand, we are divided into five population groups and in the last two, which correspond to small towns, we are paid significantly less than the others.
However, the officials to whom we report receive the same remuneration because they only have three groups, which means that in some cases the lawyer receives a lower remuneration than his subordinates, which does not seem very correct,” explains Yáñez. The solution would be to reduce the designated populations for lawyers from five to three. The National College of Lawyers says it reached a “firm agreement” with the judiciary in March last year, which in some cases means an increase in allowances of up to €4,000 a year.