The CCOO union is open to the criteria favored by CEOE employers regarding salary increases and the real evolution of the economy and its sectors. It stresses the need to base increases on objective data and to review how collective agreements are structured to reflect actual performance, not mere promises or optimistic forecasts.
In a media briefing this Thursday, the CCOO secretary general presented a proposal that challenges the CEOE, which has argued for avoiding blanket criteria and instead tying wage growth to the actual progress of individual firms. The union also urged the Ministries of Finance and Labor to prepare sectoral indices built on the figures reported to the Tax Administration, ensuring that the data guiding negotiations reflects true company performance.
Specifically, the offer laid out by Unai Sordo, the CCOO general secretary, envisions using the framework of industry-wide negotiations as a basis for agreements in sectors (ANC). The plan is to set a base wage increase in the 3% to 3.5% range for the current year and onward, paired with a mixed wage review clause. This clause would take into account both inflation and profits generated in productive sectors, allowing the proposals to be tailored to actual company progress while relying on objective data, according to Sordo.
As an illustration, a 3.5% raise could apply for 2023 and be adjusted at year-end inflation, provided sector profits show a corresponding improvement. Sordo posed the question to employers: will they accept a model of collective bargaining driven by objective data?
Preliminary data from the Tax Office, analyzed by CCOO from corporate sales statistics, indicate that profit margins rose to 10.4% of sales—a historically high level and about a 30% increase from pre-pandemic figures. From the union’s view, comparing this with the 2022 average salary increase of 2.78% reveals a mismatch in how inflation’s impact is shared between workers and companies.
CCOO proposes that government business results indices be used as reference points for the codes of each collective agreement, guiding negotiations within each sector. More than a thousand collective agreements are expected to be renewed in 2023, the union notes.
Beyond wage negotiations, Unai Sordo commented on the broader obstacles to advancing an agreement on reforming pensions. This includes the government’s plan to extend the calculation period. On remaining items in the reform agenda—such as bidding gaps and the maximum contribution base—CCOO views some measures as easier to reach than others, while opposing extensions to the calculation period.
There was no consensus on the pension debate, and the parties faced renewed government proposals in the area of internships and scholarship statutes. Sordo indicated that if any changes require breaking the terms of the existing union agreement to secure parliamentary support, such moves would have to proceed without social dialogue support.