PRESS RELEASE
Two weeks of indefinite strike: thousands of Spaniards without passports in the United Kingdom due to the indifference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• The workforce of all the dependent offices of the MAEUEC in the United Kingdom (Embassy of Spain and Consulates General of Spain in London, Manchester and Edinburgh) began an indefinite strike on March 14 to demand the improvement of their working conditions, adequate to the situation in the United Kingdom after Brexit.
• Among other demands, the group calls for a salary update that corrects the great loss of purchasing power resulting from thirteen years of freezing, equivalent to the inflation accumulated in the period 2008 to 2021 and currently triggered as a result of Brexit.
• The workers join the claims of Spanish residents in the country and demand a quality foreign service in the United Kingdom from the Government of Spain. In this sense, a collection of signatures has been launched through the change.org platform.
• According to INE data, there are more than 176,000 Spanish residents in the United Kingdom, although the data provided by the British authorities put this figure at more than 300,000. Many of them have been waiting months for their passport to be renewed.
• The Government of Spain has not initiated any action to reach an agreement with the affected workers.
The labor staff without an agreement at the Consulates General of Spain in London, Manchester and Edinburgh and the Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom continue to support the indefinite strike called last Monday, March 14. The measure, which was approved by the majority of the workers, comes after months of negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which the demands of the group have not received the expected response. Workers have denounced for months the precarious situation in which they find themselves, aggravated by the impact of Brexit on the British economy.
Among the demands, the group demands a salary update that corrects the great loss of purchasing power resulting from thirteen years of freezing, equivalent to the accumulated inflation in the period 2008 to 2021, currently triggered as a result of Brexit and which has reached its peak in the last 30 years. In addition, the workers denounce that several colleagues are below the minimum interprofessional wage established in the United Kingdom. “It seems incoherent to us that the current Government approves increases in the minimum interprofessional salary in Spain and does not respect the minimum interprofessional salary in other countries, allowing some of the workers of the Spanish Administration abroad to be below the poverty line”, indicate sources of the group. “We feel abandoned by the Ministry and the Spanish Administration in general, we are the point of reference for thousands of Spanish citizens in the United Kingdom after Brexit and we do not even have an agreement that protects us.”
Through the change.org platform, the workers have started a collection of signatures to denounce “the poor management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in the United Kingdom, as a result of abusive cuts that have precarious the services offered to citizens, as well as the working conditions of its employees. According to sources from the group, the terrible working conditions of the workers directly affect the service offered to the citizen, which has increased exponentially after the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. “In the last year alone, 21 workers have left their jobs permanently. Until these places are replaced (a process that lasts several months), the work falls on the rest of the workers, who cannot cope. By the time a place is filled, another colleague has already abandoned and the process is repeated”.
According to INE data, there are more than 176,000 Spaniards currently residing in the United Kingdom. British authorities put this figure at more than 300,000. The main procedures demanded by Spanish citizens are passport renewal and registration in the Consular Civil Registry. “We are not enough workers to meet the demand and there are thousands of citizens waiting to get an appointment, Brexit has generated an avalanche,” these same sources indicate.
Despite everything, it does not seem that resolving the situation of workers and citizens is one of the priorities of the Government of Spain or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After two weeks of indefinite strike, there has been no movement by the institutions to unblock the situation. “The only thing that demonstrates this indifference is the situation of institutional abandonment that we find ourselves in and that we have been denouncing for years. There are thousands of citizens who need more consular services due to Brexit, but both the need of these citizens and the precarious situation of workers do not matter in Madrid”, the workers are resigned to admit.
“We know that the time chosen is not ideal, but on April 1 the fiscal year begins in the United Kingdom and many of us will not be able to face, for example, the rise in energy prices (the British Government has announced an increase of 54%) or the rise in the rental price”, they explain from the group. “We need an immediate solution or we will have to abandon our jobs, with the consequent damage to the citizens who require the services of the Consulates and the Embassy.”
For more information, please contact:
Employees of the Consulates and the Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom
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