The winds of battle are blowing in the courts. The Administration of Justice will face the start of new mobilizations tomorrow while it is still trying to wake up after the indefinite strike that the lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) waged for more than two months and that left the courts practically paralyzed – more than 13,000 actions, among them, 7,000 trials were postponed in the Region.
Up to 1,500 Justice officials – 93% of the total that make up the Administration – are called to join a strike starting this Monday – with daily three-hour strikes – called by the unions Comisiones Obreras, Csif, Staj and UGT to demand the paralysis of the parliamentary process of the Organic Law of Organizational Efficiency and a salary increase similar to that achieved by the LAJ – in this case, up to 450 euros per month. On Wednesday, April 19, the strike will include the entire working day and will be accompanied by a large concentration in Madrid to demand that the Ministry value the work carried out by this group, the machinery of an increasingly saturated and limping administration.
“The workers are very aware of their role and they are going to defend it,” emphasizes Flora Martínez, secretary of the justice administration sector of Commissions. The unions await a massive follow-up of a strike that, they say, stems from the indignation generated in the workforce in recent months.
«The protests come at a very delicate moment; I hope that the Ministry acts as soon as possible»
Francisco Martínez-Escribano
Lawyer Murcia
Martínez explains that the convening unions had been trying to negotiate with the Ministry for a year on the organizational efficiency bill that puts the so-called trial courts into operation. An initiative, he points out, that is undergoing parliamentary processing and that “puts jobs, destinations, voluntary mobility, remuneration at risk…” In addition, these groups had been demanding salary adjustment and negotiation of the professional career of all groups that, with the announcement of a salary increase to the LAJ, demand that it be addressed immediately. “In the lawyers’ strike, we were somehow forced not to work,” remarks Martínez, who draws attention to the traffic jam generated in the courts and the effort that this requires from the entire workforce. Martínez emphasizes that “those of us who do tasks that, if we do not do them, justice really sinks, we must be compensated for them and recognize the work we do.”
The dean of the Murcia Bar Association, Francisco Martínez-Escribano, does not hide the fear that exists in the group of a new paralysis of the administration just when it began to work again after two months of impasse. He also highlights the concern about the impact on some offices “that depend on an administration to and fro from the economic demands of one and the other.” An administration, he emphasizes, that “forgets the provision of public service.”
Martínez-Escribano emphasizes that “the Ministry should have realized” that its agreement with the lawyers of the administration of justice opened the door to “a cascade of chain petitions.” This, he emphasizes, “is a call effect” that Justice should have assumed. In this sense, the claim of the legal profession to take advantage of the moment to demand once again an update of the payments for the shift that she has been claiming for years is advancing.
“The damage to citizens of prolonging stressful situations, such as legal proceedings, cannot be repaired”
angel mendez
Cartagena Lawyer
The dean of the Murcian legal profession warns that this new mobilization comes at a “very delicate moment” in which Justice begins to wake up after months of practical paralysis. “We are receiving quite a few notifications and many sentences.” Lastly, he asks the Ministry for a less immobile position than the one he displayed before the LAJ indefinite strike. “I ask that you not sit still again and that whatever you have to do, do it as soon as possible,” he concludes.
The dean of the Cartagena legal profession, Ángel Méndez, shares the concern of his counterpart in Murcia. «We face another strike within the administration of Justice with astonishment. We have not had time to recover from that of the lawyers of the administration of justice and now we are facing that of the officials », he explains. “We continue to respect the right to strike of all workers, but perhaps it is time to stop and think about what the consequences will be for citizens. Does anyone care about citizens? Obviously not.” Méndez doubts that this new strike generates a concern in the Ministry commensurate with its importance. “If procedural acts are suspended again, such as statements, appearances, views and others, the effects and damage will be irreparable,” he warns. “The damage to citizens of prolonging stressful situations such as legal proceedings cannot be repaired.” The dean of the Cartagena legal profession emphasizes that “an urgent solution must be reached unless it is intended to end the Administration of Justice.”
Ángel García Aragón, in charge of the Lorca Bar Association, explains for his part that the previous strike has already left, in Lorca alone, some 1,800 unregistered demands and remarks that “the queue is quite important.” He also stresses that, in most cases, there is still no date for the issues that were left unanswered by the LAJ strike and with this panorama the administration. “Justice has been a very mistreated administration, at a political level it has never mattered, and the results are being seen,” he underlines.
salary adjustments
The associations of judges are also awaiting the progress of the negotiations while demands are already being heard among their own ranks. The four associations of judges already addressed a letter to the Ministry weeks ago requesting “the urgent and immediate convening” of a meeting to “undertake the adequacy of our salary payments.”
“Justice has been a very mistreated administration, at a political level it has never mattered, and the results are being seen”
Angel Garcia Aragon
Lawyer Lorca
Fernando Madrid, spokesman for the Professional Association of the Magistracy in the Region, remarks that his association “respects the right to strike of civil servants and we hope that the minimum services established will be met.” By agreeing with the lawyers of the Administration of Justice, he emphasizes, the Ministry opened the door for other bodies to make similar claims. “It was foreseeable and probably preventable.”
The magistrate Francisco Cano, spokesman for the Francisco de Vitoria association in the Region, hopes that, “through the opportune negotiation between the Ministry and the different groups, the agreements that are possible and necessary are adopted so that the administration of Justice returns to function normally.” Judge Ana Bermejo, regional coordinator of the Association Judges and Judges for Democracy, expresses herself in similar terms.
Llop asks the strikers for “awareness”
The Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, calls for “awareness” of the workers who are going to go on strike starting tomorrow, Monday. This is how she expressed it in an interview granted this week on Onda Cero. “What I appeal to here is the responsibility of all the bodies that have stated that they are going to do strikes, they are going to make protests…”. Although they will take their claims into account, she explained, they continue to be at the service of the people and “we are in a situation in which the impact of the pandemic and the impact of the pandemic is having an effect on citizens.” Sources from the Ministry consulted by LA VERDAD remark that the position of this department “with all the groups up to now is of an outstretched hand.” They emphasize that «nobody had done so much for the recognition and improvements of the sector in such a short time. Now it is time to negotiate and dialogue and that is what is being done.
#Justice #wake #pressure #mobilizations