• Direct: Follow the last hour of the coronavirus

A Madrid judge has flatly rejected the request of the Unified Police Union (SUP) to order the immediate delivery to officers of protective material against the coronavirus such as gloves, masks and glasses. The resolution of the 34th Social Court affirms that the measure would be useful and would not serve "at all to save any life" in the face of the notorious shortage of these products. The car is very hard with this request and other similar ones from other groups. You consider them, in addition to being useless, unsupportive, if not detrimental to the fight against the pandemic.

Magistrate Antonio Seoane attacks both the specific petition that he has had to resolve and others that in recent days fell to other Social Courts. In almost all cases, with an estimate of the precautionary measures claimed. On the contrary, the judge of 34 rejects them by various means. One of them is its uselessness, since the order to provide the material would remain merely declarative that it could not be executed. "This resolution is not going to influence in any way whatsoever in the rescue of any life or the physical or moral integrity of a single police officer, unfortunately. And this would be both estimative and dismissive. Because reality unfortunately goes in other directions "

The judge also considers that the occupational risk prevention regulations are not applicable to the current situation for various reasons. One, the exposure to risk that is intended to be avoided goes beyond the workplace and reaches groups such as "the elderly in residences, the unemployed, the self-employed, the politicians, etc." And another, because labor regulations are foreseen for ordinary situations. "It is not the factual assumption that we unfortunately find ourselves in. We are facing an unforeseen and unforeseeable pandemic, with professional risks that are not usually present, unpredictable, against which their evaluation in the Prevention Plans was not possible."

By way of comparison, he points out that it would not be "imaginable" that in a war situation the unions judicially asked "to build air raid shelters or field hospitals or to provide bullets to the soldiers to avoid more deaths." To this, it adds jurisprudence of the Court of the EU indicating that its directive on labor protection can yield in situations of danger to life or collective security such as the current one.

The order affirms that the request for precautionary measures "forgets that the problem of lack of protective equipment is not exclusive to the Police, but rather affects in general all public employees who perform, perform essential services. That there are more personnel seriously exposed. Given the lack of material for all, the Government of the Nation must prioritize services, territories, social groups ... ".

Unsupportive and useless

The order insists on criticism of the petitions - and corresponding judicial concessions - for unsupportive and useless. In solidarity: "Those pronouncements have been obtained without considering the specific circumstances or the rights of other workers perhaps most in need. That is the inhumanity of corporatism, believing that the body to which one belongs deserves more than the others. And for useless: "Because if there are no or insufficient equipment, the injunction is not going to provide them, nor are the judicial officials going to start preparing them domestically. And if they are acquiring more, as is desirable and we believe that it is already happening, it will in any case be up to the sole direction of the crisis to determine their fate. The Courts have nothing to say that we lack the precise specialty to manage a health crisis ".

The judge therefore questions what was agreed by other colleagues of the Social throughout Spain. "The Courts that have previously agreed to precautionary measures now find themselves in the contradiction of having to execute by way of request. In other words, request and request again until the final request in a vicious circle impossible to break." "We do not believe," he continues, "that in view of the current situation, the requirement that a court may make to the General Directorate of the Police contributes nothing to the moral requirement that the police officers are carrying out every day when verifying the deficiencies in which they must surely The men and women for whom they are responsible work, among other things because they are also exposed and would be beneficiaries. I do not think it adds anything to the requirements that the political decision-makers to obtain and distribute these equipment to all are undoubtedly making to themselves. those of us who are engaged in essential services. Among other things because it is public that some of them and their families have been infected. "

Suspicious petitions

The magistrate considers "surprising the trickle" of requests for precautionary measures such as the one that he has had to study. And lashes out at those responsible. He emphasizes that they have not been presented by majority unions, but by sectoral unions, "defenders of corporate interests, some of them with a few minority representation quotas in their respective civil service bodies, others with equally legitimate ideological options, in clear opposition to the government's color. Even corporate unions that once defended private healthcare, cuts to public healthcare and the compatibility of public healthcare with private. "

What happened leads him to "suspect" that judicial activity is being wasted in requests "impossible and useless for certain unions to satisfy their real or possible electorate, to use them as a propaganda weapon or even to serve political interests to wear down the Government in such a critical situation, noting that unity of leadership is necessary in these dire situations and that behind the leader we must all stand without reservation ". And he concludes: "Therein lies true patriotism. Only remember that in a war situation, in which fortunately we are not, the 'fifth columnists', the disinformators, those who demoralize and demotivate the civilian population are condemned for treason against the most severe penalties for collusion with the enemy. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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