The Lawyers' strike forces the National Court to suspend statements for the BBVA commissions to Villarejo

MADRID, 31 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Central Court of Instruction number 6, in which the investigation of the BBVA contracts with the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo is being investigated, has been forced to suspend a witness statement in the framework of that piece 9 of 'Tandem' due to the indefinite strike of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ).

This is how an ordering procedure from the court was collected, to which Europa Press has had access, in which it is explained that the appearance of the expert witness Carlos Javier Díaz Navarrete coincides with the strike to which the LAJ has joined to reinforce the court .

The lawyer reports in that proceeding that since the testimony is not among those defined as minimum or essential services, "the indicated statement is not supported by the judicial public faith that must accompany the practice of judicial proceedings."

Responding to that same diligence, from the National Court the suspension of the declaration is agreed by order and it is noted that a new date will be decided for it with a new indication. Legal sources consulted by Europa Press point out that in addition to the expert, this Tuesday a police officer was also summoned as a witness.

The Progressive Union of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (UPSJ), one of the conveners of the indefinite strike that this Tuesday faces its sixth day, echoed the suspension on its Twitter profile.

The latest figures that have come out on the monitoring of the strike are from this Monday, when the three convening associations indicated that around 73% of the LAJs staff joined and that "thousands of legal proceedings" had already been suspended. These figures clashed one more day with the data offered by the Ministry of Justice, which says that the day was seconded by 18.9%.

The conflict has its origin in "the lack of salary adequacy to the greater functions and responsibilities attributed by Law 13/2009, discharged to judges, and increased in successive reforms", especially that of 2015, which -they denounce- - has caused an "unbearable imbalance".

The conveners point out as a "trigger" of the conflict the agreement that the Ministry of Justice signed in December 2021 with the unions of the general bodies "without properly developing the salary adjustment to the latest procedural reforms provided for in the second paragraph of Additional Provision 157 of Law 11/2020 of General State Budgets for 2021".

The associations accuse Justice of prolonging and intensifying the conflict: "Not only has it not called the Strike Committee, (...) but it sets it on fire and inflames it, untruthfully in Parliament by stating (without accrediting) having complied with 10 of the 11 claims and 2 remaining pending, which does not even arithmetically correspond to reality".

Before the strike began, Llop asked the organizers to avoid "maximalist positions" because they prevented "good agreements", ensuring that his Ministry is permanently negotiating with the different LAJ associations.

In addition, he emphasized that these officials are a very important component for the proper functioning of the work of courts and tribunals, to ask them to be aware that whoever exercises a public function does so for the citizens.

That same day, the Ministry sent a letter to the LAJ signed by the Secretary General for Innovation and Quality of the Public Justice Service, Manuel Olmedo, in light of the "disinformation that apparently exists" about the actions carried out by the department "in interest" of the body.

Olmedo took stock of the objectives he proposed to achieve when he took office. He recalled that the first measure, linked to the modification of the royal salary decrees to make the union agreement adopted in December 2021 effective, was approved in April 2022 and represented a retroactive increase. "The fullness of the effects will be reflected in the payroll for this month of January, reaching an increase in supplements of 206.87 euros," he specified.