The LAJ and Justice meet tomorrow after three weeks of indefinite strike in search of salary improvements

Some 152,000 suspended views and 560 million euros blocked in judicial accounts due to the 'sine die' stoppage

MADRID, 15 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Pilar Llop will meet this Thursday from 5:00 p.m. with the strike committee of the Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) in what will be the first meeting that the parties will have since the indefinite stoppage began last January 24 in search of salary improvements, three weeks in which, according to the LAJ, the activity in the courts and tribunals has been reduced by 60%, with 152,000 views suspended and 560 million euros have been blocked.

The head of Justice has assured this Wednesday that she is "in a position" to have an "honest dialogue" with the LAJ while highlighting the labor improvements that have already been applied from her department to this body of officials.

This has been pronounced in the Congress of Deputies in the framework of an urgent interpellation urged by the PP to request explanations about the indefinite strike of LAJ that this Wednesday reaches its day number 17.

The Progressive Union of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (UPSJ), the Independent Association of Lawyers (AinLAJ) and the Illustrious National College of Lawyers have issued a statement on Wednesday where they estimate the monitoring of the indefinite strike during this day at 80% , while the Ministry of Justice speaks of 28.15%.

Justice summoned the strike committee last Thursday, one week away, something that the associations interpreted as a maneuver to "prolong the conflict while waiting for the follow-up to decline."

Thus, they reproached that Llop "does not have time" to "meet and solve the most serious problem of the Administration of Justice in the recent history of Spain", but he did have time to go to Malaga and Seville "to deliver some medals".

This week "55,000 more trials will be suspended and another 150 million euros will be blocked in judicial accounts," they warned while regretting "very deeply" the "enormous damage" that this situation is causing to users and professionals of Justice .

According to calculations by the LAJ associations, to recover the delay caused by just the first two weeks of the strike "a minimum of four months of work will be necessary."

"No one in this country anymore --neither citizens, nor professionals, nor legal operators, nor this strike committee-- is capable of understanding such ministerial negligence," they pointed out.

Since the force measure began, the LAJ have registered maximum participation of 85% and minimums of 73%, while the Ministry has reported between 33.92% and 18.9% follow-up.

The tension between the LAJ and Justice has been increasing since last year, when they carried out the first stoppages --on specific days--, until finally on January 24 they began an indefinite strike.

Before it started, Llop asked the strike committee to avoid "maximalist positions" because they prevented "good agreements". However, once it started, the Secretary of State for Justice, Antonio 'Tontxu' Rodríguez, accused them of leading a "political" strike that was "out of place".

Rodríguez argued that "any type of economic claim that takes place in this strike does not make sense" because the Ministry "has complied with all the agreements" reached with the representation of these workers.

In addition, he stressed that, although "the right to strike is in the Constitution", "citizens are being seriously harmed", emphasizing that weddings were being postponed.

In this context, the LAJ demanded the intervention of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the response came from the head of his Cabinet, Óscar López, who told them that they are "an essential piece" of the Judiciary and expressed his "confidence". in which the negotiations with the Ministry "can conclude in a reasonable and satisfactory agreement".

However, in recent days the strike committee has directly requested Llop's dismissal due to his "inability" to resolve the conflict. "We are aware that after the cold figures that we have been making public for weeks, behind each number, there is a citizen who is being harmed by the negligence of the directors of this Ministry of Justice," they stressed in their latest statement.

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".

They point out as a "trigger" the agreement signed by Justice 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 General State Budgets .

As the strike has had an impact on the functioning of courts and tribunals, it has drawn the attention of political parties. The PP has already questioned Llop and Ciudadanos registered a parliamentary question to find out "how the Ministry of Justice intends to solve" the conflict that it maintains with the Administration Lawyers.