MADRID, 05 (SERVIMEDIA)
The UGT and CCOO unions and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) reached this Friday a general preliminary agreement on the evolution of wages in collective agreements that includes a revaluation of 4% in 2023 and 3% in both 2024 and 2025, according to Sources of the negotiation informed Servimedia.
In addition to a 10% increase in three years, the V AENC contemplates a salary review clause that, depending on the evolution of prices, could mean an added revaluation of another 1% per year for workers.
The pre-agreement will be signed shortly by the social agents, although at the end of the meeting this Friday, around 5:00 p.m., the sources specified that the agreement is not yet completely closed, since some "fringes" are missing. Of course, they explained that the pact is "very advanced".
The social agents are thus very close to closing the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) one year after the negotiations were put on hold due to the union demand to include a salary review clause linked to the CPI that the CEOE rejected out of hand. flat, considering that it harmed companies and would favor the 'inflationary shock'.
However, for the CCOO and UGT, this requirement was inalienable, so that from May 2022 until the beginning of this year, no formal meetings of the bilateral negotiating table were held again.
The dialogue was reactivated after a proposal by the CCOO and UGT in January in which it was requested that the review clause was no longer only linked to the CPI, but also to the progress of each economic sector. To do this, they demanded that the Government create an observatory on corporate profits. They also asked for initial salary increases of 5%, 4.5% and 3.75% for the next three years.
After some formal meetings, the parties continued to negotiate with "discretion", despite the fact that the unions publicly maintained tension to push the CEOE to reach this pact. Not surprisingly, wages were the protagonists of the May Day demonstrations, in which union leaders warned of an increase in mobilizations if there was no agreement.
It should be noted that the AENC is not mandatory, but consists of a guide with recommendations for the negotiation of the different sectoral and territorial collective agreements pending renewal.
Wages have not been the only obstacle that unions and employers have had to overcome, although it is the most important.
The AENC has not only been an issue on which the social agents have been speaking out in recent months. From the Government, different ministers and the president himself, Pedro Sánchez, repeatedly urged the employers to reach an agreement on wages. The toughest was the second vice president and labor minister, Yolanda Díaz, who went so far as to accuse the employers of "lack of empathy."
Faced with these criticisms and after saying this Thursday Díaz that he saw an agreement possible soon, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, replied that neither the minister nor the Government “paint anything” at a negotiating table that is bilateral between the social agents.
After learning about the pre-agreement this Friday, Díaz celebrated the news and assured: “I want to thank the social agents for such an important agreement aimed at protecting the wages of working people. The trade union and employer organizations are once again at the level of our country”.
Regarding the observatory of business benefits that the unions were demanding, the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, announced its creation approximately a month ago, although no details were released later on it. In this regard, the CEOE fears that it is "more interventionism" and that it is intended to tell companies and workers "what they have to do."
Finally, from the business side, the president of the National Federation of Self-Employed Workers (ATA) and vice president of the CEOE, Lorenzo Amor, declared that "today many have finally realized that businessmen did not have to return to any dialogue table”, but that “they had been talking for weeks to seek an agreement”.
“I hope many politicians learn the lesson. With discretion, without noise and electoral advertisements, agreements are easier ”, settled Amor.
(SERVIMEDIA)05-MAY-2023 18:24 (GMT 2)DMM/clc
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