Madrid (EFE).- Most of the associations of judges and prosecutors will postpone the beginning of the strike until Monday, May 22, instead of starting it next Tuesday, in order to “expand the margin of negotiation”, as requested the Government during the meeting on Wednesday.
Within the framework of the remuneration table that the associations have formed with the Ministries of Justice and Finance and Public Function, only one of the seven entities that group judges and prosecutors, the conservative and majority Professional Association of the Magistracy (APM) , maintains the call to start the strike for the 16th, although the possibility of delaying it is “in the process of decision,” sources from the association have informed EFE.
The national board of directors of the APM, which considers the Government’s proposal of 46 million euros “unacceptable”, meets this afternoon to discuss the postponement.
New meeting on the 16th
The progressive Judges and Judges for Democracy and the Progressive Union of Prosecutors, who advocate accepting the Government’s proposal, are the only ones that have not joined the strike call at any time.
The other two associations of prosecutors -Association of Prosecutors (AF) and Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF)-, as well as the Independent Judicial Forum (FJI), decided last night, at the end of the meeting with the Government, to delay the start; while the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) has joined the postponement this morning after a meeting of its board of directors.
The Government has summoned judges and prosecutors to a new meeting next Tuesday, the day for which the start of the strike was scheduled. Before, Justice and Public Function will transfer to the associations their “definitive proposal”, indicates JJpD in a statement.
This will include, in addition to the “fixed” economic offer of around 46 million euros, some “aspects of the remuneration table that remain open to future negotiation” and that will serve to “try to advance on issues such as trienniums, workloads, health employment, professional career, guards, variable remuneration, population groups and career complement”, explains JJpD.
According to the association, “the process would end on May 18 with a new meeting in which the final positions” of judges and prosecutors must be established.
For its part, the AJFV acknowledges that the negotiations “have not borne fruit”, but welcomes the fact that the remuneration table is operating, “a negotiating body that has remained inert for more than a decade”, and that there is a proposal regarding the work schedule of this commission.
6% salary increase
The remuneration table is the body provided for by the law regulating the remuneration system for judicial and fiscal careers, which must be convened every five years, but which has not met since its creation in 2003.
Sources from judicial associations say that their purchasing power has decreased by 20% on average since 2004, while the Government’s offer would mean an increase of just over 6% in three years. The salaries of judges and prosecutors range, on average, between 52,000 and 131,000 euros gross per year.
If it finally occurs, in the middle of the electoral campaign, this would be the third indefinite strike in the administration of Justice so far this year, after that of the lawyers, which lasted two months, and the one announced this Wednesday by officials of the general corps and specials also from May 22.
The entry Most of the associations of judges and prosecutors agree to postpone the strike was first published in EFE Noticias.