Workers with an agreement that have a salary review clause against inflation increase to 27.4%

MADRID, 12 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The wages agreed in the agreement rose on average by 2.89% until February, a figure slightly higher than that registered in January (2.81%), but 3.2 points lower than the last CPI advanced, whose interannual rate climbed in the second month of the year up to 6.1%, according to data extracted from the collective bargaining statistics of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.

This salary increase is less than the 8% increase agreed between the Government and the unions for the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) this year and the increase experienced by contributory pensions (8.5%) and is somewhat more in line with the guidelines set out in the last pact of agreements signed by the CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme, whose validity ended in 2020.

The unions want to renew this agreement with the business organizations and have already made a proposal to negotiate with the employers. In fact, they plan to meet this Monday, March 13, to discuss this negotiation.

In their proposal, released a few days ago, the CCOO and UGT ask CEOE for initial salary increases of 5% for 2022, 4.5% for 2023 and 3.75% for 2024, with the inclusion of a mixed salary review clause that addresses both the maintenance of the purchasing power of wages and the economic situation of companies, measured by the evolution of their profit margin.

In this way, the unions have reformulated their salary proposal by introducing new criteria on the salary review clause, which will no longer be linked only to the evolution of prices, but also to the economic progress of the companies.

Thus, CCOO and UGT propose that an additional increase be added to the initial salary increases proposed for each year of the period 2022-204 (5%, 4.5% and 3.75%) due to the deviation of inflation in each one. of the years of the agreement.

In addition, said additional salary increase, which will be set through the review clause, will be linked to the information obtained through the Economic Information System for Collective Bargaining (SIENC) so that the recovery of the purchasing power of the wages is related to the economic evolution of the sectors through "reliable data".

According to the union proposal, this salary recovery clause will preferably operate at the end of each of the years and, in any case, it will be the collective agreements themselves that establish other sequences of entry into force of the clause: at the end of the 2022-2022 cycle. 2024 or a percentage distribution in both times (a percentage of the recovery at the end of the year and another at the end of the cycle).

The unions defend that the negotiation with CEOE of this agreement agreement cannot go beyond May 1, and if they do not reach an agreement, they have urged the Government to establish a minimum contribution in Corporation Tax of 15% or 20% on total profits, an approach that CEOE has not liked.

Most of the agreements registered until February in the Labor statistics were signed in previous years, although they take effect in 2023.

Specifically, until the second month of the year, a total of 1,941 collective agreements with economic effects in 2023 had been registered, of which only 44 have been signed this year, with an average salary increase of 5.21%. The rest, 1,897, were signed in previous years and include a much lower average salary increase of 2.79%.

The 1,941 agreements registered until February gave protection to almost six million workers.

According to the Labor statistics, most of the agreements registered until February do not have a salary review clause to avoid losses in purchasing power. Specifically, of the 1,941 agreements recorded, only 16.6% (322) had a wage guarantee clause and of these, 228 contemplate that it be applied retroactively.

The agreements that include a review clause affect just over 1.64 million workers of the almost 6 million covered by the agreements registered until February, the equivalent of 27.4% of the total.

Thus, the bulk of workers (seven out of ten) do not have safeguard clauses in their collective agreements, although the number of workers protected by this instrument has increased compared to that existing in December 2022 (21.08%) and January 2023 (27.2%) and is close to that of March 2022, where it exceeded 29%.

Of the total number of agreements registered up to February, 1,441 were company agreements, with effects on 366,400 workers and an average salary increase of 2.76%, while 500 were sectoral agreements and covered 5.6 million workers, with a salary increase average of 2.90%.

The average working day agreed in the agreement stood at 1,753.3 hours per year per worker up to February (1,704.6 hours in company agreements and 1,756.5 in higher level agreements).

Of the 1,941 agreements registered until February, a total of 56, the equivalent of 2.9%, contemplated a salary freeze, while 32.6% of the agreements, three out of every ten, included a salary increase of more than 3%. , being the average of 4.79%.

More than half of the agreements, specifically 52.6%, involve average salary increases ranging from 0.5% to 2.5%. The statistics do not include any agreement with a salary cut.

The Labor statistics also reveal that up to February there were 155 non-applications of agreements, above the 129 in the same period of 2022 (20.1%).

These 'disconnects' affected a total of 6,516 workers, compared to the 4,635 affected in the first two months of 2022, representing an increase of 40.6%. The 'removal' of the agreements supposes the revision of the labor conditions in the companies.