Tax Assistants in Mendoza have filed a lawsuit in Civil court against three resolutions from the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding their working conditions. They believe that the measures taken by Prosecutor Alejandro Gullé are «unconstitutional» and «inapplicable.»
The lawsuit was filed on Friday, with a underlying conflict: salary disputes between employees and officials of the Judiciary, who have not accepted the successive salary increase offers from the Government.
The lawsuit was filed through the Judicial Officials Association on behalf of all tax assistants in the province, specifically challenging the «unconstitutionality and/or inapplicability» of resolutions 230, 231, and 236 signed by the chief prosecutor of the province.
These three resolutions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office establish working conditions for all fiscal offices in the province. For example, they state that the offices must operate 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Furthermore, they describe that technical and administrative staff must work from Monday to Sunday from 7 am to 11 pm. Tax assistants must work in three daily shifts according to a schedule determined.
Two resolutions – excluding 236 – came into effect starting Monday, June 17.
«We are trying to ensure that the working hours of tax assistants are respected and limited to the 8 hours that correspond, with 12 hours of rest,» emphasized Marcelo Fekonja, head of the Judicial Officials. The third point of the judicial claim is to eliminate active duty because they have been required to be present.
In the courts, complaints about working hours in fiscal offices point to excessive working hours. In some cases, tax assistants end up working 88 hours a week, when the law states that it should not exceed 48 hours a week in office jobs.
Another complaint is that the 12-hour rest period between working days is not being respected in many cases, causing employees to return to the office early. Overall, illegal working hours have become normalized.
According to Fekonja, these resolutions «worsen the situation in terms of working hours, as there are not enough tax assistants in the province to cover all fiscal offices in three shifts.»
The union leader relies on statements from Prosecutor Gullé to argue that approximately 38 more tax assistants are needed to fill the positions.
These are the three resolutions that have been challenged.