The National Court has condemned Iryo, CCOO, UGT and Semaf for anti-union conduct in the negotiation of the Equality Plan, partially upholding the lawsuit presented by the Federal Railway Sector of the General Confederation of Labor (SFF-CGT). It condemns all of them to pay compensation of 3,000 euros to the union, which they will have to pay “jointly and severally.”
The ruling has declared the existence of a violation of CGT’s fundamental right to freedom of association by the railway manufacturer and the main unions in the sector.
The “anti-union conduct” that the National Court has proven consisted of the constitution of a negotiation commission for the company’s Equality Plan, immediately prior to the holding of union elections, just two days before an election in the center of Barcelona. .
Thus, only the most representative unions in the sector at that time were present at the negotiating table, excluding CGT, which obtained 100% representation in the Barcelona workplace. Furthermore, later negotiations at the equality plan table were paralyzed for more than 8 months.
The magistrates consider that in the face of such indications of anti-union behavior “nothing is provided by the co-defendants in order to prove the need for such delay or the reasons for the paralysis of the negotiations.”
“It is therefore certainly striking that the constitution of the table is urged two days before the elections in one of the workplaces and, once the table is constituted, the negotiations are paralyzed, preventing access to said commission to the union that obtains better results in the electoral processes and that, as a result of such results, it exceeds 10% representativeness,” the ruling states.
“The indications of violation are, therefore, sufficient and neither the company nor the co-defendant unions provide sufficient justification of the urgency in the call or the circumstances that led to the subsequent paralysis of the negotiation process for more than 8 months.”
Thus, the court appreciates “the existence of anti-union conduct that violates freedom of association, not the right not to be discriminated against,” of CGT. For this reason, the National Court declares the nullity of the constitution of the Negotiating Commission of the Iryo Equality Plan, “annulling its constitution and restoring the situation to the moment prior to it.”
“It is evident that the negotiating table was constituted in extremistwo days before the elections, to exclude the SFF-CGT, subsequently paralyzing its work for almost a year,” CGT highlights in a press release.
Aside from this ruling, CGT has reported that Iryo has summoned the union to a meeting next Monday, December 9, at 11:15 a.m., to seek solutions to the strike that the union will begin in the company on December 23 to ask for more allowances and payment of the extra night stay, reports Europa Press.
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