Juan Diego Teruel rubs his eyes and can't believe his bad luck.
“It is the fifth time that my trial has been suspended: the first time was due to covid, the second due to the secretaries strike in March 2022 and the other two following also due to covid.
Now I had the marking on January 24, just when the strike began, and I don't know what to do anymore.
This Sevillian mechanic filed his lawsuit in the Social courts for a change in contingency derived from a work accident in 2019, but his hearing has just been suspended and it will most likely be set for 2026, according to the current schedule of appointments in the capital andalusian
That is to say, Teruel will have to wait seven years for justice to respond to his claim.
The lawyers of the administration of justice, the former judicial secretaries, have been on an indefinite strike since January 24 to demand wage and labor improvements and their strike has forced the suspension of more than 100,000 trials and hearings, according to data from the organizing associations. .
“We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing.
We have not gone on strike to harm anyone, we are willing to call it off as soon as we have a response to our proposals from the ministry," says Juan José Yáñez Pena, from the Progressive Union of Justice Administration Lawyers (UPSJ).
But the conflict is bitter and there are no signs that a solution will be reached.
The 4,441 lawyers of the Administration of Justice in Spain form a legal body that depends on the ministry of Pilar Llop.
Belonging to the A1 group, the highest of the State officials, they are in charge of directing the judicial offices and ordering the activity of the courts, so their work is essential for the daily functioning of the courts.
The salary of lawyers ranges, according to data from the ministry, between 37,697 and 57,722 euros in the courts (plus variable salaries);
and between 42,554.92 and 58,979.72 euros in the judicial office.
His claim implies an average increase of 600 euros, to stand at 85% of what a judge charges.
The associations calling for the strike claim that the Ministry of Justice made a written commitment last year to grant this increase, but it has backed away from that commitment, alleging the rejection by the Ministry of Finance.
Justice denies that the commitment was signed and warns that the rise that the lawyers claim is impossible.
“They have been the Spanish officials who have had the most increases in the current stage of Justice.
We have raised them by 4%, plus the 5-odd from the Government to all civil servants.
About 200 euros.
No official has had that increase, ”say sources from the ministry led by Llop.
Juan Aranda, this Wednesday in Seville.
Alejandro Ruesga
Justice also ensures that since they began meeting with the representatives of the lawyers in 2021, 14 of the requests that they brought to the negotiating table have been granted, there are another seven in process and only the salary approach to the lawyers is pending. judges, who, they warn in the ministry, is not going to be achieved.
"The Treasury has told us categorically," said these sources.
The positions seem irreconcilable, but the lawyers are willing to maintain their strike until they achieve their goal.
Follow-up, they say, is around 80% and has increased since the first days.
The figures of the conveners, as usual, are far from those recorded by Justice, which this Thursday placed the follow-up at 27.39% of the total workforce and at 38.52% if those who are in attendance are subtracted. minimum services.
Figures aside, unemployment is visible in the courts throughout Spain.
In those of Seville, the improvised posters with folios in the entrance columns that warn of the suspension of trials followed one another this Wednesday.
And the long faces multiply.
The hearing for the dismissal of Juan Aranda, 64, has been suspended in Social Court 9.
“Three more years of waiting?
I can not believe it.
I am asking for my compensation for having worked 10 years in maintenance for a company and after 46 years of contributions ”, he comments incredulously after filing his lawsuit in 2020 and knowing that it will foreseeably be resolved in 2026.
Lawyers from the Administration of Justice gathered in Madrid to reaffirm the indefinite strike that began in January.EFE
Among the suspended lawsuits, those of dismissal stand out, but there are also other very serious ones, such as the procedures for terminating contracts at the request of the worker, when a company stops paying its employees and they go to court to be able to request unemployment and relocate. in another firm.
“A person who has not been paid for four months and must wait until 2026?
It's crazy, ”says the lawyer Sergio García.
The General Council of the Judiciary considers it "essential" to create "at least" five Social Courts in Seville due to a "patent" overload and a "structural deficit", according to a recent disciplinary action to which this newspaper has had access. .
The Teruel labor lawyer, Antonio Gutiérrez, denounces that the strike aggravates the chronic collapse of justice.
He has seen it all: “It has already happened to me twice that clients die waiting for the trial.
22 years ago there were 11 Social Courts and today there are only 13″.
Pilar Corchero, also a veteran lawyer, confirms: “It is a jurisdiction where the worker has lost what is essential, his work.
It is not a luxury jurisdiction”.
A worker from the Social Court 4 of Seville illustrates the overload of work that the strike implies: "For us it is double or triple the work, apart from enduring the anger of the lawyers, some of whom come from Barcelona or Madrid and when they call the day before you can't anticipate what will happen.
They must come and it is a useless cost ”, she affirms under anonymity.
A lawyer from the Wage Guarantee Fund (Fogasa) confirms: “They want it to be chaos and that is what is happening.
When the strike is over, there will be an avalanche of papers and people are rightly desperate."
The lawyer of the Social Court 5 of Seville, Yolanda Valdivielso, explains that the number of trials suspended these weeks is so large that they must be relocated in the spring of 2026. "Those that are going to be held today have waited three years for celebrate and now they will wait three more years ”, he details.
In the province of Seville alone, 6,160 trials, appearances, hearings and other acts have been suspended, according to data provided by judicial lawyers.
The money that enters the bank accounts of the courts, destined for alimony for minors or compensation for separated persons, is paralyzed because the key that unlocks the transfers is held by the Administration's lawyers.
The issuance of payment orders has dropped by 90%, more than 350 million paralyzed, according to the organizers of the strike.
"It causes us anxiety to see that money is coming in and not being able to give it a destination," admits Juan Antonio Ortiz, a lawyer in Court 2 of Lora del Río (Seville).
In Andalusia, more than 12,000 trials have been suspended, according to the organizers.
“The stumbling block is in the Ministry of Justice, which does not sit down after reaching some agreements last April.
We will continue on strike until the ministry wants to”, assures Luis Toribio, a member of the executive of the National College of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice.
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