Health and Judicial systems threatened by ongoing strikes

PALMA
THE Doctors' Union in the Balearics (Médico Libre) said yesterday that the second day of their ongoing strike has claimed even further support with an 82 percent turnout in favour of the work to rule, a 2 percent increase on the opening day .

The Union president, Miguel Lázaro, was asserting a 2 percent increase in support in response to a statement by the Balearic government's health institute, IB-Salut, whose director - Josep Pomar - said that the Administration was not prepared to give in to the strikers' demands. Lázoro claimed that his Union envisaged a staged solution to the conflict over pay and working conditions but that the real problem lay in the fact that IB-Salut had not contacted them to arrange for negotiatons.

Meanwhile, an investigation is being launched into how much the continuing national strike by the administration staff of Spain's judicial system will affect the smooth-running of the legal system. The indefinite work to rule was begun a month ago and the Judicial Advisory Committee now needs to assess exactly which areas of the country will require most back-up when the strike comes to an end and an attempt is made to deal with the backlog of pending court cases. The worst disruption is estimated to be in Asturias, Murcia and the Balearic Islands. The strike has had widespread support from senior court judges around the country who say that considering the specialist nature of the legal administration staff, their working pay and conditions should be at least in line with that of other public employees. The strike affects some 9'500 workers.