Employers and unions will sign the fifth contract for employment and collective bargaining this week (AENC). Such ‘consensus of agreements’ is designed as a roadmap to guide negotiations. wage sector sector. It is a document without normative status that the parties agree to abide by but are not legally bound by. And this lack of necessity is definitely reflected in the statistics. In just one year of the last 18 years with a salary agreement in place, payrolls have risen within thresholds agreed between employers and unions.
Bilateral negotiation in Spain brings together twenty years of state agreements. The idea is that the domes are a ‘umbrella’ A metaphor often used by negotiators for their partners, under whom they will act. However, the unique characteristics of each sector and the autonomy of the agents in the field have caused many more contracts to be renewed than the contracts that fit them, bypassing the proposals of salary contracts.
First agreement between Confederate leadership CEOE, CCOO And UGT It dates back to 1997. At the time, the Spanish economy was reeling from the hangovers caused by the crisis. The Gulf War and the social partners sought to stabilize with an initial minimum agreement on collective bargaining. However, it wasn’t until 2002 that employers and unions shared a common framework for salary increases.
Since then, and until the real estate bubble burst in 2008, social workers have been called upon to raise salaries to the same level as civil servants. inflation It was planned by the government. The problem was that the Government systematically underestimated the rise in prices and pressured the unions to achieve higher wage increases so as not to lose their purchasing power. The result: Increases in deals nearly doubled the previously agreed threshold.
Poor preaching and the unprecedented earthquake that killed the world in the 2000s Financial Crisis and real estate forced the social partners to change the way they work in 2008. After a hiatus in 2009, employers and unions could not agree on some transfer proposals to their partners, and as of 2010, salary contracts were valid from annual validity until 2009. every three years. They also left behind the way of directly linking wages to inflation and began to propose increases at certain rates.
The bargaining logic of collective agreements works later than the economic cycle. Evidence of this is as the Spanish economy enters its largest period. crisiswages were rising, as if the economy was getting stronger. And yet, while the domes of social actors call for wage moderation to prioritize job creation, it must be remembered that unemployment rate Over 20% – and 1% recommended content, the average increase in deals was 2.3%.
Companies keep up with salaries
If the first decade was marked by breaches of wage agreements in favor of workers, the second decade was characterized by employers dragging their feet and offering sub-agreed pay increases. As of 2012, which coincides with the second AENC, the wage increases realized in the contracts have always been below the commitments of the employers.
In the next business cycle great recession Employment was slowly recovering from pre-crisis levels, and wages posted very weak gains, falling below 1% in a few years. The salary increase agreed for the first time among social agents until 2019 coincided with the salary increase that their partners closed. At that time, he considered an increase among AENC 2% and 3% The average number of contracts was renewed with 2.2%.
This job reluctance to increase salaries was transferred to other commitments enshrined in salary agreements. In the previous AENC, employers and unions signed that no less than salary agreement could be made until 2020. 1,000 euros monthly gross (EUR 14,000 in 14 payments or per year). According to a CCOO report, four out of 10 deals reached that date and their salary categories are still below that amount. Until the recent increases in the inter-professional minimum wage (SMI) by the government, companies did not update their tables for this figure.