También en castellano| També en català
Following the road blockade carried out during the protest from the past 22nd of april, the management of ALBA Synchrotron once again stated publicly that the labour conflict affecting staff is pending judicial resolution. However, workers’ representatives insist that this claim misrepresents the real nature of the dispute and deliberately reduces a much broader conflict to a single legal issue.
According to staff members, there are currently three major salary-related problems within CELLS.
The first concerns internal salary inequalities between employees performing the same work while receiving significantly different pay. Workers argue that these disparities have persisted for years without any clear correction policy.
The second issue affects the institution structurally: salaries at ALBA are considered low compared with other European synchrotrons. According to figures provided by management itself, the facility ranks among the worst in Europe in salary terms, particularly for non-managerial staff, while executive-level salaries remain comparatively more competitive.
Staff members also argue that restrictions imposed in recent years by the Spanish Ministry of Finance have worsened an already precarious situation. From their perspective, the current problems did not originate from external constraints, but from salary policies implemented by management over many years.
Discontent has intensified following the approval of approximately €1 billion in funding for the ALBA II project. Part of the workforce considers it contradictory to demand increased workload and expansion while simultaneously failing to allocate resources to improve staff salaries and working conditions.
The third salary-related issue concerns the refusal of the Ministry of Finance to authorize the professional promotion supplement. According to workers, this leaves salaries without any meaningful progression mechanism beyond the limited public-sector wage increases, which consistently remain below inflation. This is also the only issue currently pending judicial resolution.
Workers are therefore calling on management to stop presenting the protest as a purely judicial matter. According to staff representatives, even if the professional promotion supplement were eventually restored, it would not solve the years of accumulated salary deterioration or the structural inequalities affecting the centre.
Because no major scientific project can thrive without the people who make it possible every day. Defending decent working conditions is not against ALBA Synchrotron — it is about defending its future. Only with a respected, stable and fairly paid workforce can a leading scientific project be built. Together we are stronger.
