After the strike of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJs) and together with the strikes of court officials, the judicial associations and prosecutors have announced this Monday their intention to call an indefinite strike of judges as of May 16 as a complaint measure for the “lack of endowment” to Justice, since they consider the resources dedicated to this area in the General State Budgets “insufficient”. The indefinite strike, if it finally occurs, would begin less than two weeks before the municipal and regional elections are held.

“In the General State Administration, the administration of Justice is the Cinderella, the workloads that the courts and prosecutors have affect both the quality and speed of the judicial response and the health of the judiciary and the members of the prosecution, and everything relies on reinforcement plans and the dedication of professionals, which cannot be the only remedy for overload and high litigation”, several of the groups of judges and prosecutors point out in a statement issued.

Specifically, the Professional Association of the Magistracy, the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association, the Independent Judicial Forum, the Association of Prosecutors and the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors have already announced their intention to join this strike.

For their part, the Association of Judges and Judges for Democracy and the Progressive Union of Prosecutors, although they share their opinion on the situation the judicial system is going through, have announced that they will wait for a meeting scheduled for May 3 with the Ministry of Treasury to decide whether or not to join the call.

Judges and prosecutors announce this indefinite strike considering that they are suffering from “a context of systematic and persistent abandonment of the Administration of Justice, which degrades the quality of the institutional response that, from the judicial system, citizens who go to court in seeking effective protection of their rights”.

The Ministry of Justice directed by Pilar Llop held meetings with the judicial associations on March 31 and with the prosecutors on April 4, but both have decided to draw up a schedule of “pressure measures” given their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the meetings.. And it is that in October 2022 the Ministry of Justice “disconvened without explanation” the Remuneration Table, a body provided for the review of the remuneration of judges and prosecutors, according to criticism from the associations.

“Government Propaganda”

The organizations that justify the strike say that it is not enough to call the table on May 3, which could be called off at any time or concluded without agreements, which they consider would be “delaying the agreement and serving as an instrument of government propaganda.”. “The prudent, quiet and responsible attitude that we have maintained up to now, for more than 1 year, has not borne any fruit, without even having been allowed to speak directly with the Ministry of Finance, which is legally part of the Board “, they explain.

For the judges and prosecutors, this call occurs in “a context of systematic and persistent abandonment of the Administration of Justice, which degrades the quality of the institutional response that, from the judicial system, citizens who go to court seeking of the effective protection of their rights”.

The associations express their firm intention to work to reach an agreement that avoids having to implement the pressure measures announced, “from the same good faith that has encouraged us up to now.”

“However, we will not allow this responsible attitude to serve once again as an alibi for the negligent inaction of the Ministries of Justice and Finance, which, within the Government, are responsible for ensuring that our country has an effective judicial system. that it is not possible to achieve if the work of judges, judges and prosecutors is not carried out in conditions -also remunerative- adequate”, they conclude.

For its part, the strike of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice, which ended on March 28 after almost a month of indefinite strike where 350,000 trials and hearings were suspended, ended with an agreement with the Executive that contemplated a salary increase of between 430 and 450 euros. This fact has been the key trigger for the rest of the officials in this branch to have decided to support the strike as a measure of pressure to achieve their salary demands.