The indefinite strike that has prevented the normal functioning of the courts in our country since January 24 will continue. The representatives of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJs) and the negotiating team of the Ministry of Justice, with the Secretary of State Tontxu Rodríguez, at the head, have not reached any agreement after fifteen hours of meeting.
The versions about what happened are far apart depending on what part of the negotiating table is asked. According to government sources, the LAJs have left the negotiating table with the Ministry of Justice after having raised their demands compared to those initially raised and without proposing any other alternative.
The meeting, which began on Thursday afternoon, lasted until 08:15 this Friday and ended without an agreement after the lawyers from the Administration of Justice, “in addition to refusing to call off the strike to advance in the dialogue and negotiation, decided to put forward a new proposal to the Ministry raising their salary requirements with an approach that would imply a double down payment clause”, indicates Justice in a press release.
For their part, from the strike committee they assure that the Ministry team has not made a concrete offer to the members of the Strike Committee beyond “studying” the population groups, limiting itself to repeatedly requesting the immediate withdrawal without any specific commitment. . The lawyers accuse the Executive of not wanting to enter into a negotiation: “It is absolutely irresponsible on the part of the Ministerial team not to negotiate with the Strike Committee despite having called them and they are the only ones responsible for the tremendous damage that is being caused to the Spanish population and to legal operators; any complaint should be addressed to the Ministry”.
The Secretary of State for Justice has shown his surprise at this position of the strike committee, which he has described as “unusual and contrary to good negotiating faith”. “When one sits at a negotiating table, one must start from the demands initially raised and be willing to make some concession; the only proposal made tonight by the lawyers of the Administration of Justice shows a clear lack of will to reach any type of agreement”.
The new proposal presented by the lawyers of the Administration of Justice insists on maintaining the down payment clause, which would mean referencing the amount of their remuneration to that of judges and magistrates. The new requirement supposes that, in addition to each lawyer, individually, receiving 85% of what the judges of their respective judicial bodies receive, the whole of the salary mass of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice will also be referenced to the mass salary of the judicial career, which in practice would mean a double down payment clause, that is, a double salary increase, according to sources from the Ministry of Justice.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice has proposed to the strike committee to study a salary improvement, based on the population groups in the destinations of the lawyers, which would especially benefit the LAjs with lower salaries, an issue that the negotiators have rejected.
The attitude of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice has been described by the Secretary of State for Justice as “contrary to any negotiating logic” and has lamented the “closeness” of the group to “start a real negotiation, after almost four weeks of strike in which the main victims are the citizens”.
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