Unions and employers could not agree on increasing the minimum wage and negotiations were postponed until December 11

After a meeting that lasted almost three hours, the confederal secretary of CCOO Union Action said, Mari Cruz Vicente Peraltaand Fernando Luján de Frías, deputy secretary-general for social policy, stated that this first meeting “did not result in an agreement” but that a new proposition was included to continue negotiating the increase in SMI, namely indexation. Transfer of contracts with public administration to SMI.

“This meeting discussed the CEOE’s request to update the contracts that the State maintains with workers, as long as this update is aimed at workers and the stability of the contract is guaranteed employment for public administration employees,” Luján said.

In this context, Vicente Peralta pointed out that it is “essential” to open this process to guarantee that the SMI applies to all workers who are not covered by the collective agreement.

Likewise, UGT and CCOO argued that the unions maintained at this Thursday’s meeting the goal of updating the SMI at no less than 60% of the average salary and taking into account the increase in the shopping basket. Protecting the purchasing power of families. “We believe that if these parameters are met, an agreement can be reached.“Luján assured.

“We talked about parameters and targets, not numbers (…) but as long as 60% of the average salary is guaranteed and purchasing power is preserved, there will be an agreement,” Luján reiterated.

That’s why they scheduled the next meeting to raise the SMI for Monday, December 11th, so that the “new parameters” that were tabled in this first meeting came up with “parameters that still need to be worked on.” If agreement is reached,” an agreement could be reached that they hope to close with a percentage at the next meeting.

“We will continue the process with the next meeting on the 11th and we hope that at that meeting we will analyze all the thinking that has been done today and look for margins or percentages of agreement around each of the parties’ approaches.” Vicente Peralta took notice.

They reiterated that the CEOE offer was “inadequate”

On the other hand, they repeated CEOE’s suggestion: Increasing SMI by 3% by 2024 and 3% by 2025, They think this is “inadequate” and that the increase in SMI for this year should also take into account the fact that wages have increased by over 5%.

“It should be taken into account that this year salaries have increased at a very significant rate, over 5 percent, so this should also be taken into account when calculating the average salary and an update should also be made according to these parameters, because official authorities The data is for 2022 and we are talking about the SMI of 2024 ” they added from CCOO.

Luján assures that he has no job offers

On the media’s question about the offer Ministry of Labor Increasing SMI to 4%Luján assured that the Ministry of Labor never presented them with an offer.

“The Government has not made any proposals. Moreover, the Government should respect the positions of the parties, dictate to the Government what corresponds, but after listening to the parties, there is no such proposal.” he assured.

However, according to sources of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Diaz Increasing the interprofessional minimum wage would be positive (SMI) is around 4% for 2024; this will be the percentage increase agreed upon by unions and employers in the 2023-2025 collective bargaining agreement.

An increase of 4% would increase the SMI from €1,080 per month to €1,123.2 per month for fourteen payments. In any case, the basis for the minimum wage increase for the Labor Party in 2024 is inflation.

The goal of the Office of Yolanda Díaz is to reduce this minimum income earned by approximately two million workers. not covered by collective agreementDon’t lose your purchasing power.

Considering, half inflation For the period December 2022-It became 3.8% in November 2023, it would meet the target of not losing 4% income power.

Recommendation to unions and employers

Although business organizations, which had previously made public the proposal they would bring to the negotiation table, did not oppose increasing the SMI amount, they demanded that the increase be limited to 3 percent in both 2024 and 2025. First of all, he cannot convince either Díaz or the unions.

UGT and CCOO also rate the CEOE’s proposal for an SMI increase as “inadequate” and advocate consideration of: development of not only the overall CPI but also commodity pricesTo determine the increase like food.

The unions, which for now do not offer a specific percentage for the increase in SMI, have on several occasions been in favor of increasing the SMI to 1,200 euros per month; This represents an increase over the current amount of 11.1%.

The aim of both the Government and the unions is to place SMI at 60% of the average wage, as recommended by the European Social Charter. In this sense, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported last Friday that the average Spanish salary in 2022 is 2,128 euros per month gross. 60% of this amount would be equivalent to approximately 1,277 euros per month.

But this Thursday, CCOO general secretary, Unai SordoHe emphasized that the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) should rise above the CPI in 2024 and that it should do so in line with the pace of production. Average wages increased in the second quarter (+5.2%).

“If average wages rise to 5.2 percent in the second quarter of the year, I think the increase in the minimum wage should also go there in 2024. This will also be one of our proposals on the table and we will see. Sordo, on the CEOE side or what has been referred to so far mainly CPI “There is a willingness to negotiate on how the government is positioned,” he explained.

In statements to RNE compiled by Europa Press, the union leader stated: “We must go beyond CPI” and allowing SMI to gain purchasing power “which is necessary given that essential goods such as basic foodstuffs are increasing much more.”

In this context, CEOE president Antonio Garamendi pointed out that “it is a very good thing to ask”, referring to the request made by CCOO general secretary Unai Sordo to increase the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI). It is expected to be around 5% by 2024, but the impact of increasing salaries on companies was also asked to be taken into account.