UNE Legal Office Defends Workers' Rights
NSCAG News |
on: Friday, 5 December 2014
Legal office staff with UNE General Secretary
Since 2011, UNISON has supported a Legal Office for the public sector union UNE. The office has provided job security for two workers at the office – lawyer Henry Rodriguez and his assistant Lissethe Tamara Lopez - and they in turn have provided responsible and efficient legal aid services to workers whose rights have been violated by their employers and who are in need of legal defence.
“Thanks to UNISON, the Legal Office for UNE has provided free legal support and advice to more than 80 members of our union. The Office has definitely fulfilled the expectations of workers who have been defended by the office lawyers in different administrative, labour and judicial cases when their rights have been violated” - Henry Rodriguez, head lawyer of the project.
One of the beneficiaries of the project is Yesenia Carolina Salinas Membreño, who works at the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security. She has expressed her satisfaction with the existence of the office and its ability to provide legal support and advice to workers when they most need it:-
“For me, the Legal Office was the best I could have found. Thanks to the support I received, I was reinstated in my job from which I had been arbitrarily sacked and where my rights as a woman and as a worker had been violated, firstly because I was pregnant at the time and secondly, because the correct administrative procedures established by law were not followed. I think that the Legal Office is very important for all workers, as they explain to us the appropriate steps to take depending on our circumstances”
Other benefits derived from UNISON’s support for this project have been a series of workshops imparted by the office staff to union members and leaders on the following laws: Law 502 Municipal Administrative Career Law, Law 476 Administrative Career Civil Service Law and explanations about the new labour code in Nicaragua and how it benefits workers.
