It was May 5, 2022, when negotiations broke down to renew the agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC). The salary guarantee clauses, basic for the unions, unacceptable for the employer, became an insurmountable obstacle. Yesterday, just one year after the fiasco, the two parties saved the barriers and reached a pre-agreement for salary increases for the period 2023-2025. It means an increase of 4% this year, and 3% in both 2024 and 2025, with guarantee clauses that would mean an increase of up to an additional point if inflation exceeds these increases.
This is the practically agreed part of the AENC, but not everything is closed. There are still some elements that will force the negotiation to continue throughout the weekend and if, as expected, the last fringes are removed, the directions of both CC.OO. and the UGT and the CEOE will give it final approval in the coming days.
This is what the general secretaries of CC.OO., Unai Sordo, and of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, recognized. "At the moment we are close to the agreement, although there are details and some of which are important to finalize over the course of the weekend", said Unai Sordo. For his part, Pepe Álvarez spoke of "the prospect of an imminent agreement" and practically gave the increase percentages as closed when he affirmed that "I have the perception that the agreement is quite closed, and when an agreement it is quite closed, the essential parts are not usually touched again”.
For its part, the CEOE stated that "there are still fringes, therefore, we will continue working". He stated this yesterday when the negotiators suspended the meeting, around 5 in the afternoon.
The AENC, the framework that serves as a guide for the negotiation of collective agreements and that ensures a climate of social peace, goes far beyond wage increases. The document that is being worked on occupies 30 pages, and for the negotiators, "even the wording of each paragraph is important". According to sources in the negotiation, among the fringes are issues such as absenteeism, training and discontinuous fixed contracts, among others.
If the agreement is concluded as planned, it will put an end to a long negotiation on the renewal of the AENC and ensure a climate of labor peace. The talks had been bogged down for months, with repeated accusations from the unions that management showed no intention of negotiating in earnest. "Conversation is not negotiation", pointed out from CC.OO., which criticized the lack of involvement of the CEOE. Precisely, the unions turned May Day into a moment of vindication, with threats that, otherwise, the mobilizations would become general. It will not be necessary, apparently, because the agreement is very close. "Almost closed", a cautious negotiator said yesterday.
As the agreement is proposed, it is below the proposal that the unions formulated on March 1, when they demanded a rise of more than 13% in the period 2022-2024 and with safeguard clauses that took into account inflation and the situation of companies. Now the period we are working with is 2023-2025, and the total increase is in principle 10%, although with the option of increasing it based on the CPI.
There are two major advantages of being able to renew the agreement for Collective Bargaining. Although it is only a recommendation, it sets a frame of reference for the various collective agreements that must be faced and, in addition, ensures a framework for labor peace. With a signed AENC, the threats of widespread mobilizations disappear which, according to the unions, "you know how they start, but not how they end", and moreover, in this case, it means resuming the agreements between employers and unions, which have been multiplied since the outbreak of the pandemic, and which have led to an intense and fruitful social dialogue.
