The LAJ demonstrate tomorrow after a week without meeting with Justice while Llop asks them for "realistic" proposals

MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The strike committee of the Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ) has called a new demonstration in Madrid for tomorrow, Thursday, at 1:00 p.m., after the "unsuccessful meetings" that they held last week with Justice for the indefinite strike that began on January 24 and while Minister Pilar Llop asks them for "realistic" proposals.

The three convening associations --the Progressive Lawyers Union (UPSJ), the Independent Association of LAJ (AinLAJ) and the Illustrious National College of Lawyers-- have indicated in various statements that the demonstration will have "the same route as that of the 24th from January"; that is, from Madrid's Plaza de Callao to the Ministry's headquarters at number 45 Calle San Bernardo.

The strike committee has assured that it adopted this decision after "the unsuccessful meetings this week" in which, as it has stressed, "the ministerial representatives unilaterally decided that communications should take place through the exchange of proposals by email".

"We understand that this way of relating to the Strike Committee clearly demonstrates their lack of will to resolve the conflict," they have pointed out in reference to the indefinite strike that they are maintaining in search of a salary increase to compensate for the workload they have assumed in the last years.

This week, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, has asked the LAJ to formulate "new proposals" considering that those received to date "are not viable" and that officials have to be "realistic." In line, she has stressed that Justice "is open to dialogue" with the lawyers, although she has insisted that the "position" they maintain is not acceptable to her department.

It should be remembered that the meeting on Tuesday, February 28 - the fourth in the framework of the negotiations since the indefinite strike began - ended without an agreement, with reproaches between both parties and without a date for a new meeting.

That day, the strike committee accused Justice of presenting an "unacceptable" proposal and of wanting to resolve the strike by email, while the Ministry stressed that the strikers persisted "in asking for a salary increase of about 1,100 euros per month."

The LAJ have denied in their communiqués having requested said amount and have accused Llop of "spreading hoaxes and inaccurate information in a dirty war inappropriate for public officials than in solving the serious existing conflict once and for all".

"We have never claimed the amount of 1,100 euros of rise for all the members of our Corps," they have pointed out. "We abide by the commitment of April 2022 and we claim a percentage of 85% of the salary of the corresponding judge or magistrate," they added without specifying any amount.

On the sidelines, the LAJ of the Supreme Court have also issued a statement in which they stress that "there are no reasons to call off the strike", while stressing that "it is not true that the so-called down payment clause is legally impossible" because " if so, the CGPJ would not have proposed it".

Since the last meeting and in view of the demonstration this Thursday, the associations have sent the Ministry of Justice a request for a face-to-face call and the appearance of a mediator at the meetings.

"Given the refusal to continue holding face-to-face meetings to conclude a negotiation that puts an end to the conflict (...) this Strike Committee considers that, as in any other serious negotiation, no more contact should be maintained than face-to-face meetings and computer transfers and physicists of the documentation that is agreed in them", they have indicated.

In line, they have "expressly" requested that "a mediator appointed by mutual agreement attend the next face-to-face meetings, in order to bring the opposing positions closer together and in order to reach a prompt resolution of the unsustainable situation that is already causing harm irreparable for hundreds of thousands of people".

According to the calculations of the conveners, the conflict already leaves some 300,000 views suspended and close to a billion euros blocked by the stoppage. Everything 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 seven weeks, the convening associations have registered a participation of between 85% and 73%, while the Ministry has observed between 33.92% and 18.9% follow-up.