The Labor proposal to boost the SMI by 4% doesn’t obtain the assist of employers and unions | Economy | EUROtoday

The Ministry of Labor proposes that the minimal wage develop by 4%, from the present 1,080 gross euros per 30 days in 14 funds to 1,123. This is the determine that Yolanda Díaz’s division has transmitted to the social brokers within the second assembly on the matter, held this Monday morning on the ministry. At the second, the unions reject this proposal, though they acknowledge that it’s near their positions and that there’s room to achieve an settlement.

For its half, the employers’ affiliation doesn’t assist Labor’s method both as a result of it doesn’t decide to assembly the 2 circumstances required to just accept a rise: a deduction of social contributions within the agricultural sector and a rise in public contracts that compensates for the rise within the SMI. “We have been informed of the proposal proposed by the Government, although we have once again put on the table the approaches that we already took in the first meeting, which have to do, in particular, with the need to index public contracts to the SMI and so that its evolution goes hand in hand with the general framework of collective bargaining,” CEOE sources indicate. Regarding this matter, Labor sources explain that they will discuss it with the ministries that have this competence, especially the Treasury. But this ministry has already warned that they do not like the idea. “It would make no sense for the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage to come at the expense of public administrations having to face a higher cost for the services they provide,” Minister María Jesús Montero said this afternoon.

In response to questions from this newspaper, Labor explained before the second meeting that this dialogue table is dedicated to updating the minimum wage, not to other issues. For this reason, they considered that neither the request regarding the field nor that of public contracts should be at the center of the debate. This Monday’s meeting has changed this position, at least for the second topic. “We are not competent in this matter, but we are willing to transfer this request to the competent ministries. Therefore, there is room for agreement and those administrative concessions that can be reviewed, I am committed to transferring it to the other ministries,” commented the second vice president and Minister of Labor.

The key ministry on this regard is the Treasury, led by the socialist Montero. “The increase in the minimum wage cannot be at the expense of the income of all Spaniards. Indexation, although it is a word that people find strange, means that now we will pay more for these services than we have been paying previously. While the increase in the minimum wage is desirable, it cannot be at the expense of this issue, which has always been invariably presented by employers and businessmen,” commented the person responsible for public accounts. What Economy says will also be important, in the midst of a dispute with Labor over the unemployment benefit reform.

There is no date for the next meeting, but the unions indicate that Labor has informed them that it will be held “shortly”, as soon as they know the Treasury’s willingness to undertake this reform. However, the ministry does not need the support of social agents to approve the increase, nor does it even require a parliamentary majority. As soon as it is approved in the Council of Ministers, in all probability before the end of the year, it is transferred to the State official newsletter (BOE). “I am fully convinced that for the good of the country we will be able to achieve it. “We are very close,” Díaz added.

The different situation of CEOE and Cepyme to entry a rise is a regime of deductions relevant to the agricultural sector, “with a 20% reduction on the business fee for common contingencies, which would be added to the incentives already in force,” point out the employers’ associations. in a press launch. Labor had additionally been rejecting this risk, since they take into account that the SMI will increase haven’t had a adverse impact on the sector. Negotiation sources now level out that Labor can be open to exploring this risk, which on this case does fall inside its scope of competence.

With these two circumstances, the employers put a 3% enhance on the desk, which may very well be expanded with a further 1% on the finish of the yr if inflation closes above this determine. These phrases coincide with what was agreed by unions and employers within the wage settlement signed in May.

Unions need to go additional

The Deputy Secretary General of Union Policy of UGT, Fernando Luján, identified on the finish of the assembly that the Labor proposal “assumes the request of the employers.” “We want to know if the employers’ association is consistent with what they themselves ask for. “He asked for 3 + 1 and the Government proposes 4%,” he added. He has not specified what his union’s precise proposal is, since it will likely be larger or decrease relying on whether or not the employers find yourself taking part within the settlement. Without the businessmen, UGT will ask Labor for extra ambition.

What Luján has made clear is that “throughout the legislature”, the minimal wage ought to attain 1,200 euros, a determine that, in line with the union’s calculations, would attain 60% of the typical wage. The dedication of PSOE and Sumar is that the bottom attainable remuneration is the same as this share. In Labor they estimate that the SMI has already reached that 60% and that to take care of it it have to be elevated in a fashion just like inflation. The forecast is that the worth enhance in 2023 will finish very near that aforementioned 4%.

For its half, CC OO has mentioned that the rise needs to be larger than that proposed by Labor, of round 5%, to additional compensate for the rise in primary merchandise (of round 10% all year long). “But we come to a negotiation table and we are willing to negotiate,” commented Mari Cruz Vicente, confederal secretary of Trade Union Action of CC OO. “Business organizations have not moved their position and, therefore, there has been no room to try to bring positions closer. Each of the parties has remained the same.”

Both Luján and Vicente have highlighted that they agree with the employers’ demand concerning public contracts. But they’ve clarified that this shouldn’t be a purple line, that it might be extra acceptable to achieve a compromise now for the minimal wage and tackle this problem later. The May wage pact already established the place of unions and employers on this regard: they proposed “eliminating the impossibility of finishing up a worth assessment or at the least permitting their assessment within the occasion of regulatory adjustments, collective bargaining agreements or circumstances that don’t “could be foreseen at the time of the tender that imply increases in labor costs.” This particularly impacts corporations that present low added worth providers which might be contracted by the State, resembling cleansing or gardening. It is the Public Administration itself that often hires corporations that provide a lower cost, which is often associated to decrease than common salaries.

Regarding bonuses for the agricultural sector, each UGT and CC OO have expressed their rejection. They consider that to deal with this problem, working circumstances ought to first be improved, collective bargaining needs to be unblocked, and lots of agreements surpassed by the SMI needs to be up to date.

Labor, CC OO and UGT have agreed on the final three will increase within the SMI (from 950 gross euros in 14 funds in the beginning of 2020 to 965 in September 2021, from there to 1,000 in September 2022 and from that determine to 1,080 in January) . The employers joined them within the January 2020 settlement, which raised the SMI to 950 euros per 30 days. That was the primary enhance with Díaz as Minister of Labor, however earlier than that there was one other acceleration, in December 2018. The then solo PSOE Government, which took the reins after the movement of censure in opposition to Mariano Rajoy, dedicated to its parliamentary companions of Unidas Podemos to extend the SMI from 736 to 900 euros, an settlement that crystallized within the BOE in the start of 2019.

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