The Government offers a salary increase of almost 500 euros per month to judges and prosecutors

The Government has put on the table on Monday a new offer of salary increase for judges and prosecutors and, according to sources of the negotiation, it will be the last one to try to avoid the indefinite strike that five of the seven associations that represent both careers have called from next May 16. The proposal of the Executive comes after judges and prosecutors rejected the first offer, raised last Wednesday and that would imply allocating 44.5 million euros more per year to the salaries of both bodies. Although sources of the judges described at first the proposal as "good", the associations consider it insufficient and in the meeting of this Monday of the remuneration table have demanded new improvements. The Government has offered an increase close to 500 euros per month, according to sources of the negotiation, and the associations have been in answer on Wednesday. At the moment, the strike call is still waiting for what they decide next Wednesday.

The remuneration table will meet again in two days and sources present at the meeting on Monday assume that in that session the agreement has to be closed. What is not clear is whether the Government will agree to grant the increase without all the associations joining, since while the two that bring together the progressive wing of the sector (Judges for Democracy and the Progressive Union of Prosecutors) have been more receptive to accepting the agreement, those of conservative tendency (Professional Association of the Magistracy, Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association, Independent Judicial Forum, Association of Prosecutors and Independent Professional Association of Prosecutors) have shown more doubts and will consult among their associates. According to sources of the negotiation, the Professional Association of the Magistracy (the APM), the majority of the career and conservative tendency, has been the one that has shown a more intransigent position demanding increases much higher than the Government's proposal and distancing itself from consensus proposals that all the associations carried.

For the agreement to be effective it is not necessary for all associations to sign it, even the Government could make the salary increase effective without any association signing the pact, although sources rule out this option. The option that some sources consulted see more likely is that the agreement is closed with the signing of some partnerships. Those who do not will then have to decide whether to strike after the government has increased their wages. Other sources doubt that the Government will close the agreement if the conservative associations do not withdraw the strike call and, at least the APM, does not seem, for the moment, willing to withdraw it.

Both parties have promised not to disseminate, for now, the terms of the last offer, but sources of the negotiation indicate that it is superior to the one closed with the lawyers of the Administration of Justice, with increases of between 430 and 450 euros and that ended two months of indefinite strike by that body. According to these sources, the salary increase proposed by the Government to judges and prosecutors is close, in some cases, to 500 euros per month, the figure that most associations have requested at the meeting on Wednesday. Justice and Finance have presented it as a salary adjustment in the face of the new demands presented for both careers by the efficiency laws promoted by the Government.

The increase would be applied in the destination complement, one of those charged by all judges and prosecutors, and would mean that the Government allocates to the salaries of both bodies 46.7 million euros more than now (last Wednesday's offer was 44.5 million). The Executive has offered that this amount be distributed in a similar increase for all judges and prosecutors or that it be distributed in such a way that either the salary of judges who now earn less is increased and added to a lesser extent to those who earn more; or it is done the other way around and the salary of judges and prosecutors of higher courts is improved more and less so those of the base.

Salary adequacy

At Tuesday's meeting, the ministries of Justice and Finance, the associations of judges and prosecutors and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) sat down again. The objective is to study an adjustment of the salaries of judges and prosecutors in compliance with the remuneration law of both careers, which establishes that the remuneration board will meet every five years to study this adaptation, something that has not happened. The salary of judges and prosecutors is a sum of a basic salary and various supplements, depending on the position, seniority, destination, objectives achieved and other special remuneration. According to data from the CGPJ, Spanish judges earn between 52,534.52 (judges with less seniority and assigned to smaller municipalities) and 137,935.07 (the president of the National Court). In the Supreme Court, salaries range between 109,072.40 euros charged by a magistrate and 132,769.12 received by the president (the current one, being in office, does not receive this amount, but that corresponding to president of the chamber, 111,986.44 euros).

The associations have not brought a common proposal, although they all agree that there are aspects such as guards and the supplement by population group (which varies depending on the place of destination of the judge or prosecutor and is higher in the larger municipalities) that must change. The CGPJ and the Prosecutor's Office support the claim of the associations. Also the senior judges of the courts of all Spain, who, gathered in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in a national conference, have shown their "determined and firm support" to the claims of the associations. "It is essential to adapt the remuneration of the judicial career according to the responsibility of our function and the overload of work that we have been enduring for years," they said in a statement released on Monday, in which they add: "We hope, for the benefit of the Administration of Justice, and to prevent judges from being forced to exercise our right to strike, that an agreement be reached that satisfies the just claims that have been claimed historically by the judicial career."

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