Forty-five thousand civil servants of the administration of Justice are called, as of today, to the indefinite strike. It is the date set by the unions to start this complete strike if the Ministry of Justice did not respond to their demand for wage and labor improvements. And the day has come, without the Government having met their demands.
These officials, the majority attached to the management, processing and judicial assistance services, begin this indefinite strike after a month of strident mobilizations. Some strikes that according to the unions have caused the suspension of half a million trials and the paralysis of 30 million legal proceedings throughout Spain.
The message of the strike committee is clear: "We are the ones who do the work that others charge" and for this reason the CSIF, STAJ, CCOO and UGT unions ask for "recognition" of this effort and "respect" for the work of these professionals.
These officials of the general and special bodies of the administration of Justice are especially upset by the treatment received by the Government, which they accuse in this case of being "class-oriented", after the Ministry has resolved the conflicts that have arisen in that same department with the strike of court clerks and the threat of unemployment of judges and prosecutors.
In both cases - the associations of judges and prosecutors will sign the agreement tomorrow, Tuesday - these judicial actors have achieved increases in their monthly payrolls of up to 450 euros per month. However, the Professional Association of the Magistracy (APM), the majority among the judiciary and with a conservative tendency, has not yet joined this pact. They consider the offer of Justice "insufficient, unworthy and unacceptable".
The domino effect of the pact with the lawyers of the administration of justice (formerly court clerks) was an announced chronicle, since the officials of the basic scale already warned that if the salary of these professionals was raised they were going to ask for the same. What was just a threat is now a reality with the start of this indefinite strike.
It remains to be known the follow-up that this call for a total strike will have, to which 93% of the staff of judicial actors is called. These legal actors demand an average salary increase of 430 euros per month.
Meeting the request of these 45,000 civil servants would mean a disbursement of 200 million euros for the Government. A figure that is far from the 22 million agreed with the 4,000 lawyers of the Justice administration or the 46.7 million set in the agreement with the 8,000 judges and prosecutors.
