Agreement was reached on salaries collective bargaining agreement We started 2024 with an increase 2.8%below tenth inflation. This was also confirmed by data updated on Friday. Ministry of Labor, This shows how the majority of employees are covered. Collective negotiation They are currently losing their purchasing power, while annual inflation recorded in January was 3.4%.
Collective bargaining failed to preserve the purchasing power of workers, who once again saw prices in grocery stores, supermarkets, and other goods and services rise more than their own. pay slips.
Although employers and unions were sensitive to current inflation rates and often agreed on higher revaluations when they sat down to renew the collective agreement, conditions inherited from previous years suggest that negotiators underestimated the development of the CPI.
According to the latest data collected by the Ministry of Labor, 7.3 million employees is covered by the applicable collective agreement. They represent 42% of the total number of employees, the rest either have an invalid contract or are incomplete. Those covered by the collective document are currently considering a 2.8% salary increase for this year; This is below six-tenths of current inflation levels.
The average revaluation currently valid for this year is clearly below the core items in the shopping cart. Pork (12.8%), olive oil (54.6%) or legumes (13.2%), according to the latest disaggregated CPI data for December.
We will have to see how both indicators develop. As new deals are added, wages increase while purchasing power stabilizes if inflation decreases. Otherwise, Spanish workers will face another year of leaving poorer than they entered.
The new collective agreements signed this January were closed with references above inflation. In particular, they recorded salary changes 3.7%It is four tenths above the CPI. The problem for employees’ interests is that these contracts, renewed in January, cover only 16,453 people; this is a minority compared to the 7.4 million employees covered by collective bargaining agreements.
3% reference
This 2024 Employment and Collective Bargaining Agreement (AENC), an agreement between CEOE, CCOO and UGT leaders to guide salary negotiations across different industries. This represents a consensus that wages should rise by at least 3% this year. Negotiations carried over from previous years currently put the average salary below that threshold, but as they are renewed they could move the set of deals closer to or further away from that figure.
Collective agreement data compiled by the Ministry of Labor also includes the working hours agreed in the agreements. The current average is 1,762 hours per year and two in three employees covered by the contract could be affected by reduced working hours. 38.5 hours per week The government, employers and unions have already started negotiations. The commitment of second vice president Yolanda Díaz is to reduce the maximum working day to 38.5 hours in 2024.