Civil service pay dispute continues

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In mid-2001, Spanish civil servants are continuing to mobilise for improvements in their pay and conditions, following a court ruling in January 2001 against the freezing of civil servant's wages (in contravention of an earlier agreement with the previous Socialist government) by the People's Party government in 1997.

In drawing up the 1997 state budget, the first People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) government led by Prime Minister José María Aznar decided not to implement a three-year wage agreement (1995-7) for civil servants concluded by the previous (Socialist) government and the trade unions (ES9702201N). This deal involved annual pay increases equivalent to the increase in the retail prices index (RPI). The government claimed that this unilateral decision was taken in order to control public expenditure and the deficit in order to comply with the process of European Union economic convergence. The Teaching Federation (Federación de Enseñanza) affiliated to the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) appealed for a judicial review of this pay freeze to the National Court (Audiencia Nacional), arguing that under Spanish law it is obligatory to negotiate the pay of civil servants and that the government had also infringed International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions signed by Spain (ES9712236N).

In late January 2001, the National Court ruled in favour of the union's case and stated that the government must pay the agreed pay increases, which would amount to over ESP 500 billion (ES0102233F).

The ruling was the latest development in a long-running dispute over the pay and conditions of Spain's 2.2 million civil servants, who experienced a 12.7% fall in purchasing power from 1990 to 2000. On 23 November 2000, some 20,000 trade union delegates demonstrated to call for an improvement in pay and conditions. On 28 November, the government met the main civil service trade unions - CC.OO, the General Workers Union (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), the Galician Trade Union Confederation (Confederación Intersindical Galega, CIG) and the Independent Trade Union Confederation of Public Servants (Confederación Sindical Independiente de Funcionarios, CSI-CSIF) - to discuss the distribution of the ESP 3.5 billion in pay rises that was pending from an agreement signed on 24 September 1999 by the government, CC.OO and CSI-CSIF (ES9911160N).

This was not sufficient to stop a major strike on 14 December (ES0101228N), called by CC.OO, UGT, CSI-CSIF, the Unified Police Trade Union (Sindicato Unificado de Policia, SUP), the Federal Police Union (Unión Federal de Policia, UFP), the ANPE teachers' union, the Teaching Workers' Union (Sindicatos de Trabajadores de la Enseñanza, STE), the Workers' Trade Unionist Confederation (Unión Sindical Obrera, USO), the SATSE nurses' union and others. The industrial action was supported by 69% of civil servants. On 15 February 2001, a demonstration was held around the same demands, with very high participation across the country.

The trade unions are calling on the civil service ministry for discussions on a stable and long-term framework of bargaining relations for the public sector, including: employment policies to reduce temporary employment; the recognition of a wage revision clause for civil servants (to protect against inflation); and measures to address the loss of purchasing power. They also want the government to keep its promise to put before parliament the bill on the Basic Civil Service Statute, which was agreed with the unions in 1998 (ES9803143F). In short, the demands behind the unions' mobilisations are:

• the application of the National Court's ruling on civil service pay;

• the negotiation of a stable, long-term agreement covering employment and a wage revision clause;

• the introduction of the Basic Civil Service Statute;

• the withdrawal of a clause on geographic mobility from the legislation accompanying the new Statute; and

• the abolition of the current system of filling only a proportion of vacant jobs.

The government considers that its restrictions on pay rises in the civil service lay the basis for the wage moderation that is necessary to make the economy competitive, and has lodged an appeal against the National Court ruling for the following reasons:

• the 1997 wage freeze and the government's failure to fulfil the earlier agreement is not a question of personnel policy but one of the state's general economic policy, and was introduced in response to EU commitments;

• the National Court ruling refers to a general administrative action affecting a large number of persons, which is therefore a "regulatory measure" rather than a simple administrative one;

• the unions' case represents an indirect appeal against the 1997 state budget law;

• the National Court ruling affects trade union freedom;

• the ruling affects the government's right to effective legal protection, because it introduces a debate on the 1997 state budget law that had not been considered by the parties;

• the Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional) should have resolved this issue, because it affected the 1997 state budget law, so the ruling infringes the government's right to have the case dealt with by the appropriate court.

The trade unions are present a challenge in the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) against the National Court's acceptance of the government's appeal against its ruling concerning the 1997 wage freeze. In May 2001, a "popular legislative initiative" (iniciativa legislativa popular) - a procedure provided for under the Spanish constitution that allows ordinary citizens to present proposals directly to parliament if they are endorsed by a certain number of signatures - was presented to parliament, calling for implementation of the National Court ruling.