The CEOE will not attend tomorrow's meeting with the Government to address the rise in the SMI

Relations between the CEOE and the Ministry of Labor continue to be bad and the employers want to make it evident.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 January 2023 Monday 13:58
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The CEOE will not attend tomorrow's meeting with the Government to address the rise in the SMI

Relations between the CEOE and the Ministry of Labor continue to be bad and the employers want to make it evident. If the employers no longer attended the first meeting of the Government with the social agents to negotiate the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) on December 21, they will not attend the second, which is held this Tuesday, "because the conditions". In December, the CEOE did not go to the call upset by the introduction of an amendment to the Employment Law that gave more role to the Labor Inspectorate in the causes of collective dismissal, and also alleging that it coincided with the Board of Directors of the employer after the re-election of Antonio Garamendi. He replaced his physical presence with a letter in which he explained his proposal.

Now they do not attend because the Government has not “carried out the mandatory consultation on the SMI nor has it sent a formal proposal; and also without response on their part to the approach made by the CEOE ”, as indicated in a statement on Monday night.

From the Ministry of Labor they point out that precisely this Tuesday's meeting is where the positions of both the employers and the unions will be answered. Positions that diverge so much that it is considered practically impossible to reach a three-party agreement, and that is now even more difficult after the bosses' plan.

The proposal that the CEOE made and that it maintains is an increase in the SMI from the current 1,000 euros per month to 1,040; and furthermore, it makes it subject to two conditions. One is to establish a system of deductions for the agricultural sector and the second proposes modifying the regulations of the public sector contract law so that the increase in the SMI is applied to contracts in execution.

Faced with this approach, the unions, which will attend the meeting, are demanding a much higher increase. UGT claims 1,100 euros and CC.OO. reach at least 1,080 euros. The basis of the negotiation is the expert report that set a range of between 1,046 and 1,082 euros. This is the translation into precise figures of the percentage of 60% of the average salary, which is the objective set by the Government.

So far, the Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has not presented any proposal, and has simply stated that she is in favor of going to the "high section" of the fork proposed by the experts. In recent weeks, the unions have pressured the Government to make a decision, reminding it that it is only necessary to establish prior consultation with the social agents.