Judges and prosecutors rise again with an indefinite strike

The associations that cover the space of the judicial center-right —majority in both careers— have called an indefinite strike starting on May 16, in the middle of the electoral campaign. Last Monday they announced their “intention” to promote this mobilization if the Executive did not present concrete proposals for salary improvements at a meeting scheduled for May 3. But this Friday they complied with the formal process of summoning it through two separate letters sent to the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the State Attorney General’s Office and the “competent labor authority.” At the moment, the Association of Judges and Judges for Democracy and the Progressive Union of Prosecutors have not joined the order while waiting for that meeting.

Sources of the conveners consulted by elDiario.es affirm that the registration of the call is due to the will to comply with the notice of at least ten days that the legislation contemplates. And they also affirm that it will be called off if the Government makes a proposal for a salary increase that is satisfactory to them. In any case, the formal registration increases the pressure on the Ministry of Justice, which is having a much less belligerent attitude towards this conflict than it did towards the lawyers’ strike.

Then, the number two of Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez, accused the conveners of promoting “a strike against the people” and of wanting to harm the citizens “with their deification.” Now, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, has limited herself to saying that “this is not the time to adopt certain measures of pressure.”

In the registered brief, judges and prosecutors complain about the “loss of purchasing power” that they have been “dragging” since 2009 in a context of “increased litigation” that they attribute, among other factors, to a “waterfall of legislative reforms” which has increased its functions “exponentially”. They are, however, among the officials with the highest salaries. In 2023 they will charge, on average, around 75,000 euros gross per year, according to the data that the Government manages for the negotiation.

These conversations will take place at the remuneration table, the body legally established to review their salaries, since judges and prosecutors do not have the right to unionize or collective bargaining recognized. Within the framework of this dialogue, they will have the support of the CGPJ, which will provide three representatives, as established by law.

In its plenary session this Thursday, the governing body of the judges unanimously agreed to support the salary increase requested by judges and prosecutors and that the members who attend that meeting are the conservatives José Antonio Ballestero, Gerardo Martínez Tristán and Juan Martínez Moya . Three representatives from the Ministry of Justice, three from the Ministry of Finance, one from the State Attorney General’s Office and three from the associations are also summoned.

The conveners defend that they have been “decades” demanding that an adequate response be given to their demands. And they are especially critical of the fact that Justice called off the last call for the table, last October, “without explanations”, after months of talks. This leads them to verify the “null guarantee” which, in their opinion, means that a meeting of that body has been set for next week.

“Experience teaches us that it can be called off at any time. Even if it does take place, if there is no true purpose of negotiating (which the Ministry has not yet demonstrated) it would only be another way of delaying the agreement and serving as an instrument of government propaganda,” the conveners said this week in a statement. set. Sources from the Ministry of Justice decline to comment on this conflict pending the outcome of that meeting.

The threat of a strike launched by the center-right associations of the judiciary occurs in the context of the great judicial gridlock registered after the lawyers’ strike, which caused the suspension of 350,000 proceedings between trials, statements and other proceedings. The call is seconded by the Professional Association of the Magistracy (APM), the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) and the Independent Judicial Forum (FJI), which bring together 47% of the judicial career, the Association of Prosecutors (AF) and the Independent Professional Association of Prosecutors (APIF).

legal limbo

If it finally takes place, it will be the sixth strike by judges and the third by prosecutors in the entire democracy. Although the main novelty is that, in this case, the call has been registered as indefinite “since” May 16. The call “will allow the judges to second it the day they want,” according to what he said in an interview in The world María Jesús del Barco, president of the APM, conservative and majority among the judges. It is a scheme similar to the one followed by the lawyers of the administration of Justice. The call was indefinite, although many workers did not second it every day. In this way, they could exert pressure —for example, by supporting it on trial days— but at a lower salary cost.

The right to strike of the third power of the State is in a legal limbo because there is no regulatory support to support it. Nor does it forbid it. For example, it is the strikers themselves who set the minimum services. And in four of the five previous strike calls, those who seconded them did not lose the part of the salary corresponding to that day.

This deduction, which includes the proportional part of supplements, extra payments and weekly breaks, is common for any worker who exercises his right to follow an official strike call. But it was a novelty in 2018, when the Ministry of Justice that was then directed by Dolores Delgado (PSOE) agreed that they would deduct their salary for the first time in the strike that was called in November of that year. It was a novel decision, which broke with the trend followed by the department in the other calls promoted throughout the democracy and which had a derivative in the courts.

In 2020, the National Court considered the resolution of the Secretary of State for Justice that had established the “proportional deduction” in the payrolls of the participants in the strike to be “inconsistent with the law”. The special court declared that resolution null and void and forced Justice to return the amount, discounting the judge who took the matter to court. The sentence did not go into the substance of the matter on whether or not judges should collect their salary when they go on strike. The argument was that the competent body to “agree pay discounts or deductions from salaries to judges and magistrates” is the CGPJ and not the Secretary of State. And, in this case, the governing body of the judges limited itself to informing the Ministry of Justice of the data of those who participated in the strike, but did not adopt “any agreement” in relation to payrolls.

The other strikes of democracy

If it is finally called, Llop will become the sixth justice minister of the democracy who will have to face a strike of these characteristics, although in most of these calls the judicial representatives have come divided. This was the case in February 2009, in the first total strike of judges and prosecutors of the democracy. The call was sponsored, on that occasion, by the second association by number of affiliates, Francisco de Vitoria, and by the Independent Judicial Forum, more minority. At that time, Mariano Fernández Bermejo (PSOE) was the head of this portfolio, who resigned just a week later, besieged by this conflict and by criticism for the hunt for him with Baltasar Garzón, then a judge assigned to the National Court.

His successor, Francisco Caamaño (PSOE), had to face another strike a few months after taking office, in October 2009. On that occasion it was called only by the conservative APM. This association did not second the following call, in February 2013. At that time, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón (PP) was in charge of the Ministry. The Association of Prosecutors, of the same ideological scope, did not join on this occasion either.

The first unitary strike of the four associations of judges and the three prosecutors took place in May 2018, when Rafael Catalá (PP) was Minister of Justice. The judges protested that a catalog of proposals that they had presented in Parliament for a year had not been approved and the prosecutors that no measures had been taken to guarantee their budgetary autonomy or the implementation of a new Statute.

The unitary call was repeated months later, in November, already with Dolores Delgado (PSOE) at the head of that department. Judges and prosecutors then demanded to recover the purchasing power lost during the cuts and reforms, that their workload be reduced, that the system be modernized and that they be provided with better material means to do their work. Claims that then already came from afar and that are still valid today.