Salaries have been frozen for 13 years and their legal situation is in limbo with minimal protection from British Social Security
Employees of the Spanish consulates in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, and of the Embassy in the British capital, have gathered this Friday in front of the institutions, in the largest public act since they began an indefinite strike on March 14 to “claim decent working conditions and thus improve the service offered to Spaniards in the United Kingdom».
The protest is led by 77 of the 97 employees officially described as “staff working abroad without an agreement”, who have had their salary frozen for 13 years and often perform functions that exceed the category of administrative assistants. They are the majority of the employees in the consulates, subjected to strong pressure, due to the greater demand for procedures as a result of ‘Brexit’.
The Foreign Office’s Directorate General for the Foreign Service has repeatedly asked them to defer their demands, but the workers feel that the Subdirectorate General for Personnel has left them in limbo, with minimal rights to British Social Security, such as basic pensions or subsidies for sick leave of 113 euros per week.
Seniority penalizes
They allege that they have no choice but to go to work even if they are sick or that they are not integrated into the Spanish Social Security, as would be their right and it happens in other Spanish legations in Europe. Seniority in the position penalizes employees, who, however, have to train new hires, mostly temporary, who are offered higher salaries.
A new hire can receive 24,000 euros per year, 6,000 more in London. The average rent for a room in a shared house is one thousand euros, the transport voucher in a central area of the capital costs 2,140 euros a year and most do not live in the center of the capital. The Ministry is in the process of acquiring a new home for the London consulate, the operation of which caused widespread unrest in 2021.
The spokespersons for the protest also pointed out that some lower-ranking employees – in cleaning or domestic services – of the diplomatic missions do not receive the mandatory minimum wage in the United Kingdom.
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