The competition will not start this weekend. After more than ten hours of meeting, employers and unions did not reach an agreement on the minimum wage of the new collective agreement. Three thousand euros still separate the claims of both parties, the 20,000 euros that the League offers for this 2023/24 season for the 23,000 that the unions are asking for. Both parties have given in regarding their latest proposals, but it is still not enough to close an agreement and the strike is maintained for this weekend, when the season was to start. They have agreed to continue negotiating next week, with the aim of trying to avoid the second day of strike called for the weekend of September 16 and 17.
A strike for the first two days of the League that the unions announced on September 1, to the surprise of League F, due to the blockage in negotiations after more than a year has passed since the table was established in July 2022. negotiator for the new collective agreement. They demanded “fair and dignified treatment” that would allow “reducing the wage gap” in addition to other advances in social matters. Before the strike call, the employers' last proposal had been 16,500 euros for the 22/23 season, 17,500 for 23/24 and 19,000 in 24/25. The unions (Futpro, AFE, Futbolistas ON, CCOO and UGT), on the other hand, asked to reach 30,000 euros per year in three years.
With the announcement of the break, the Interconference Service for Mediation and Arbitration (SIMA) was activated to intercede in the negotiations between the two parties. Since Monday they have met every day in marathon sessions that ended yesterday without an agreement after more than 10 hours of meeting before the SIMA. Both parties have given in their demands, but it has not yet been enough to reach an agreement on the minimum wage, set in the last agreement at 16,000 euros per year. The F League offered to raise it to 18,000 euros, reaching 25,000 in three seasons, but the unions asked for 25,000 for this season and reaching 30,000 in three years. Finally, the employers agreed to raise two thousand euros and offered 20,000 euros in an agreement for a single season, which could be raised to 23,000 if there were benefits. The social bank's response was to also reduce two thousand euros and set the minimum salary at 23,000 euros for this season, which would rise to 25,000 in the case of benefits.
Three thousand euros separate the two parties of an agreement. League F, after the fruitless meetings, regretted in a statement “the absolute lack of will of the unions to reach an agreement that would allow the strike to be unblocked” and highlighted the “enormous effort” made by the employers. An employers' association that had previously denounced the “economic drowning” to which the clubs have been subjected “by the RFEF and the CSD, forced to give 20% of commercial income” to the Federation.
Precisely the entry of the Higher Sports Council was what managed to unblock the referee strike last year with a financial contribution from the Government that allowed the salary increase of the referees up to 25,000 euros per year.
The first collective agreement for Spanish footballers did not arrive until August 2020 – although it was applied retroactively from July 2019. It stipulated a minimum salary of 16,000 euros gross per year with 75% partiality, a concept that will disappear in the new agreement as unions and employers have already agreed. The footballers will all have the right to a full day and the partial contracts that, although residual, still existed in some clubs, will end.
The agreement also regulated for the first time some basic aspects such as the length of the working day, vacations or the automatic renewal of the contract in the event of pregnancy. In this new text, issues such as maternity or the protocol against sexual harassment must be expanded in particular. In addition, they also want to eliminate what are known as compensation clauses. Clubs can register their promising young players on this list and if another Spanish team wants to acquire their services they must pay an exorbitant clause. A barrier that motivated the departure abroad of renowned footballers such as Ona Batlle (who has now been able to return when the clause expired) or Damaris Egurrola.
