LAJ accuse Justice of wanting to resolve the strike by mail and the Ministry makes them ask for 1,100 euros more per month

The fourth meeting between both parties ends without success and without a new date on the calendar

MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The fourth meeting between the Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) and the Ministry directed by Pilar Llop has ended without an agreement, with reproaches between both parties and without a date for a new meeting. The strike committee has accused Justice of presenting an "unacceptable" proposal and of wanting to resolve by email the indefinite strike that began on January 24 in search of salary improvements that compensate for the workload acquired in the last decade, while that the Ministry has stressed that the strikers "persist in asking for a salary increase of about 1,100 euros per month".

In a statement, Llop's team pointed out that "none of the proposals put forward by the strike committee refers to improvements in the Public Justice Service, focusing exclusively on compensation claims." From the Ministry they have insisted that they have offered the LAJ "salary increases for a total of 1,906 lawyers" belonging to groups III, IV and V, "with increases that, in more than 700 cases, reach 5,000 euros a year" . "This proposal has been repeatedly rejected," he stressed.

For their part, the LAJ have explained in statements to the press at the doors of the Ministry that the Justice proposal "is absolutely unacceptable." They have also pointed out that the meeting has ended without an agreement because in Justice "now they want to go to the epistolary genre." "They no longer want to have meetings with us (...) in which they can talk about the proposals," said lawyer Juan José Yáñez.

In response to the Justice statement, the LAJ have issued a press release in which they have disgraced the Ministry for "failing to comply with the only agreement that had been reached so far, which was to keep confidentiality about the content of the conversations." In addition, they have accused Llop's team of "giving a manipulated view of the negotiations" and of rejecting the proposal they made to "use lights and stenographers" in the meeting to now "dynamit the negotiations."

This Tuesday was the fourth meeting since the indefinite strike began. After just over an hour, the members of the committee left Justice waiting for Llop's team to contact them again during the day to continue the negotiation.

The notice came shortly before 2:00 p.m.: the meeting would resume at 2:30 p.m. So it was. Both parties sat down at the table again, but for less than half an hour. At the exit, the LAJ have explained that the Ministry has not given them a response to their counterproposal, but that they have been told that they would be answered by email.

"We offered to read (the Justice proposal) there and answer them this afternoon. But they have said that they could not print it, that they would send it by email," Yáñez pointed out. In line, Luis Toribio, another member of the strike committee, has made it ugly that the Ministry has "changed the format of the meetings" and that it does not set a date for a fifth meeting.

In its statement, the Ministry recalled that the LAJ charge salaries ranging between 40,000 and 60,000 euros and has made it ugly that they have not "modified their position or made any transfer, persisting in their objective of requesting to collect 85% of what they receive judges, a matter known as the down payment clause".

In line, Justice has stressed that "a salary increase for the group of more than 14.5% has already been approved in three years, retroactively and that they are already receiving on their payrolls."

The Ministry has ensured that addressing the claims of the lawyers "would mean a linear increase in the payroll of all of them of 1,100 euros per month, about 14,000 euros per year." From Llop's team they have insisted that "the total amount would amount to almost 61.5 million euros, more than what is allocated to the Free Justice Service" in the territories in which the Ministry has jurisdiction.

According to the statement, the Secretary General of Justice, Manuel Olmedo, has stressed that the LAJ have not considered "at any time" stopping the strike as a "gesture of willingness to negotiate" and has indicated that "it is an unaffordable increase" for the public treasury and society.

In the response statement, the LAJ have stressed that the positions they defend in the negotiation "have started from the agreements reached in April with Messrs. Rodríguez and Olmedo", in reference to the Secretary of State and the Secretary General of Justice.

"As we have been repeatedly presented with red lines on the down payment clause, we proposed various alternatives, but they all faced the will to fail to comply. We have not even talked about amounts, because nothing was worth them. On the other hand, up to nine of our proposals They had no economic content," added the strike committee.

Regarding the population groups, the LAJ have explained in their statement that the Ministry "has offered a different wording than that of April 2022, in such a way that it only affects a third of the LAJ, and of them the half in just ten euros a month". "70% are not affected at all," they have stressed.

Upon leaving this fourth meeting, the lawyers have stressed that they need the presence of Minister Llop to unblock the negotiation because they consider that the team with which they are sitting at the table "lacks the capacity to negotiate."

"We need someone with the real ability to negotiate (...) The minister has to unravel this. We have demanded that the minister appear once and for all because she is always missing in the most serious conflict that the Administration is facing today of Justice," he said.

The lawyers have considered that the negotiation has reached a dead end after this Tuesday Justice presented a proposal that they have described as "absolutely unacceptable", according to Luis Toribio, of the strike committee.

Since the strike began, the LAJ and the Ministry have met three times. The first took place on Thursday, February 16; that time they were more than 15 hours and ended without an agreement and with mutual reproaches between the parties for maintaining immovable positions.

The second meeting was on Friday, and although that time they also sat down and got up from the table without an agreement --and within the hour and a half they had planned-- they managed to set an appointment on February 27 to continue with the negotiations. . Yesterday Monday they met, without success, for the third time, indicating a fourth meeting for this Tuesday.

The conflict - which already leaves 223,000 views suspended and some 800 million euros blocked by the stoppage - has its origin in "the lack of salary adaptation to the greater functions and responsibilities attributed by Law 13/2009, discharged to judges , and increased in successive reforms", especially that of 2015, which has caused an "unbearable imbalance".

The conveners point out as a "trigger" of the conflict the agreement that 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 the Law 11/2020 of the General State Budget for 2021".

In these six weeks, the convening associations --the Progressive Union of LAJ (UPSJ), the Independent Association of LAJ (AinLAJ) and the Illustrious College of LAJ-- have registered a participation of between 85% and 73%, while that the Ministry has observed between 33.92% and 18.9% follow-up.