Recently re-elected president of the employers' association, Antonio Garamendi (Getxo, 1958) warns that he will not accept a rise in wages according to inflation and that, with this proposal, the unions pose an impossible situation. Now he has to negotiate salaries, pensions and the SMI. Regarding his relationship with Foment del Treball, he says that “there is no one left over here”.
With your re-election by more than 80% of the votes, is it reinforced?
I considered the possibility of repeating another mandate because the companies that are in the CEOE, the sectors and the territories asked me to. It is logical that you continue to manage the projects started four years ago. That is why I decided to present myself and I think it has become clear, the figures say it all.
In the negotiation of the National Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) you say that you do not accept indexing wages with inflation. Is this point immovable?
Possibly it is immovable by the unions. Why don't we turn the question around? When someone poses an impossible situation at a table, it is not worth saying that the one who says that it is not this man. Nobody is saying that wages should not go up, it is clear that they have to go up, but we have to see how this increase is managed so that it does not generate second-round inflation. In addition, there is another important issue. It is very difficult to give a figure for all sectors, because this is much more heterogeneous than it seems. For example, the energy sector has little to do with a hairdressing salon, giving homogeneous figures is very complicated.
Is the AENC not necessary?
The AENC is a recommendation, what has normative status are the agreements. What happens is that we live in a moment more of politics than reality and what is intended to be given are political messages. What we do have to convey is that 'careful gentlemen with indexing wages to the CPI, because that is not in favor of the productivity or competitiveness of companies'.
Can the CEOE support an increase in the SMI by 2023?
It will depend on the approach because we do not have the papers. We know what some announcements that we do not share say, to apply the CPI; there is another part of the Government that may be talking about more moderate increases. In any case, the SMI is not just a number, there are two more points. First, what about the field? You have to help them because they have a very special situation. And second, what about public contracting and indexing? It is not logical that the Government forces companies to raise wages by 33% and does not apply the same proportion to public contracts. It's like saying 'I invite you to dinner, but you pay'.
Pensions will rise 8.46% in 2023 when indexed with the CPI, something that the CEOE agreed. Is this load bearable?
We accepted the indexing with the minister's promise that a sustainability factor had to be established. We put it as a condition, it was promised to us and we don't know anything about that factor. Now each point of rise in inflation is 1,500 million euros more, plus the effect of the baby boom, and this is not sustainable.
But there is a mechanism of intergenerational equity.
The minister has approved it without agreeing and with some approaches that we reject. He has applied the 0.6% increase, he has raised social contributions, and now in the maximum bases he has just proposed a rise in inflation plus one point; seems totally rejectable. He is not fulfilling what he promised us.
On pensions, they already have a proposal.
Only from Monday. To talk about such an important issue, the minister wants to play, as on other occasions, that on December 31 we give the go-ahead to a paper that he sends us on December 28. It is not very serious. We do not agree at all.
Will they accept to uncover the maximum bases?
The minister's goal is to go piecemeal. No, this must be discussed globally. We are not going to enter into compartmentalized approaches.
One of his close friends, Lorenzo Amor, said that the election result leaves him free to name his Executive Committee and his vice-presidents. Will Josep Sánchez Llibre repeat as vice president?
When you win an election, you are free to propose to the Board of Directors what the Executive Committee can be. I have to be the conductor of the orchestra, I am not the owner, and in the orchestra there is no one left over. No one has lost, here the organization wins. Foment del Treball is a very important organization in the CEOE, it always has been, it will continue to be and in no case will anyone be excluded from this house. When they ask me about specific people, I have to respect the organization, and I will do it on the 21st of what each one has to do, but having said that, there is no one left over here and with that I think I say it all.
If Sánchez Llibre stops being vice president or dealing with relations with Congress, can it be interpreted as punishment?
I don't interpret anything. In any case, be careful, the work areas of institutional approaches are watertight issues. Here people paint little, here organizations, companies paint and in this case, Catalonia, which is very important to me. It is essential to give it the importance it has and the support it needs, also so that all companies, and in this case the Catalan ones, can return to Catalonia with peace of mind.
Will one of your objectives be to improve relations with Foment?
It is that I do not see bad relations with Foment. If you look at the trips I've made to Barcelona, the times I've been to Catalonia, it's as much or more than anywhere else in Spain; no one will have seen at any time that I have not collaborated. It is not a matter of people, it is of companies, organizations and the country.
He multiplies criticism of the Government and describes Núñez Feijóo as a "very responsible uncle". Are you more comfortable with him than with Sánchez?
The Government is the one that does things and my obligation is to say when they are right or wrong. We cannot share à la carte laws or à la carte taxes, which is what is being considered at many times. It is essential that there is a government and there is an opposition. What I always suggest is that the president of the Government seems to me as respectable as the president of the opposition; because it seems that one cannot speak well of the opposition. When they have asked me what I think of Mr. Feijóo, I say that he is a man who has been president of the Xunta de Galicia for many years, voted for with an overwhelming majority by the Galicians, who is now president of the opposition party and deserves all my respect.
