The threat from the Ministry of Labor that if they do not accept the 4% increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI), they will have to swallow a higher increase has not gone down well with the employers' association. In short, if you do not join the consensus you will pay a price. If on Monday sources from the CEOE were already talking about blackmail, this Tuesday it was the president of the businessmen himself, Antonio Garamendi, who openly described it as blackmail and a threat. “What is funny and surprising is that if this is called social dialogue, then let them call it, but it is not. I think it's called a threat," Garamendi declared, also adding that "it's a threat, blackmail. That is, it is this or it is more. But what is the Government's criteria? The Government's criterion should be one. Not that if you are not there, I am still going to put more into you.”
These are statements by Garamendi to RNE in which he insisted on the idea that the Government is breaking social dialogue and that it does not accept some of the basic conditions of the employers, such as the indexation of public contracts and Social Security bonuses. for the countryside sector. In this area, Garamendi highlights the contradictions of the Executive, since although the Ministry of Labor in previous meetings promised to forward the request to the Treasury, it returned with the flat refusal of this department to what is an old demand of the patronal.
Garamendi's reaction comes after on Monday afternoon he maintained contact with the sectors most affected by the rise in the SMI, both those who work with the public administration, and who, therefore, are prohibited from indexing their prices, and with other areas in which salaries also represent a very important percentage of the final costs. The official response from the employers' association is expected to arrive this Friday when the new meeting with the social agents is held, but with these positions everything suggests that the increase in the SMI in 2024 will be carried out, once again, without the support of the CEOE.
The Ministry of Labor responded to Garamendi's words by reaffirming its willingness to seek social dialogue, which would be demonstrated by the numerous agreements signed on three sides in the last legislature. “Blackmail is not the method of social dialogue,” said the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, who repeated a phrase similar to the one that provoked the anger of the CEOE on Monday: “Whoever does not participate in an agreement suffers.” the negative consequences of not participating.” However, Pérez Rey insisted that there was still time and that he hopes that businessmen will end up joining the consensus.
The Ministry of Labor has conditioned its proposal for a 4% increase on the CEOE joining the consensus. It would mean going from the current 1,080 euros per month, for fourteen payments, to 1,123 euros, which according to the Government, achieves the objective of placing the SMI at the level of 60% of the average salary. If the employers finally back down, the Government will lose an important asset: offering, at the start of a term that is expected to be very eventful, a three-way agreement, including the CEOE, at a time of great political polarization.
