The agreements signed this year exceeded a 4.2% increase and workers with a review clause dropped to 22.6%

MADRID, 11 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The wages agreed in the agreement rose on average by 3.26% until May, a figure higher than that registered in April (3.14%) and practically the same as the last CPI, whose interannual rate stood in the fifth month of the year in the 3.2%, according to data extracted from the collective bargaining statistics of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.

However, the final inflation data for the month of May must still be confirmed by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) next Tuesday, June 13.

The average salary increase included in the agreements registered until May has also shortened distances with the guidelines set by CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme in the V Interconfederal Collective Bargaining Agreement that they signed a month ago.

Specifically, this agreement recommends salary increases of 4% in 2023 and 3% for both 2024 and 2025, with a salary review clause that, in the event of a deviation from inflation, could imply additional increases of up to 1% for each of the years of the agreement (2023-2025).

In this way, the average salary increase included in the agreements registered until May (3.26%) is less than eight tenths of the salary increase of 4% recommended by the social agents for this year.

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

Specifically, in the first five months of the year, a total of 2,513 collective agreements with economic effects in 2023 had been registered, of which only 330 have been signed this year, with an average salary increase of 4.28%, above inflation and what is contemplated in the V AENC.

The rest of the agreements, 2,183, were signed in previous years and include a much lower average salary increase of 3.03%. The 2,513 agreements registered until May gave protection to more than eight million workers.

According to the Labor statistics, most of the agreements registered until May do not have a salary review clause to avoid losses in purchasing power. Specifically, of the 2,513 agreements recorded, only 15.1% (381) had a wage guarantee clause and of these, 271 contemplate that it be applied retroactively.

The agreements that include a review clause affect 1.8 million workers of the slightly more than 8 million covered by the agreements registered until May, the equivalent of 22.6% of the total.

Thus, the bulk of workers (almost eight out of ten) lack safeguard clauses in their collective agreements. Despite the fact that the number of workers protected with this instrument has increased compared to that existing in December 2022 (21.08%), it has been reduced in relation to the previous data, that of April, when it stood at 25.4% .

Of the total number of agreements registered up to May, 1,832 were company agreements, with effects on 464,141 workers and an average salary increase of 2.94%, while 681 were sectoral agreements and covered 7.5 million workers, with a salary increase average of 3.28%.

The average working day agreed in the agreement stood at 1,752.4 hours per year per worker up to May (1,702.2 hours in company agreements and 1,755.5 in higher level agreements).

Of the 2,513 agreements registered until May, a total of 65, the equivalent of 2.6%, contemplated a salary freeze, while 36.5% of the agreements, slightly more than one in three, included a higher salary increase to 3%, with the average being 4.82%.

Almost half of the agreements, specifically 44.4%, involve average salary increases ranging from 1% to 2.5%. The statistics do not include any agreement with a salary cut.

The Labor statistics also reveal that until May there were 308 non-applications of agreements, above the 266 in the same period of 2022 (15.8%).

These 'disconnects' affected a total of 13,791 workers, compared to the 10,782 affected in the first five months of 2022, representing an increase of 27.9%. The 'removal' of the agreements supposes the revision of the labor conditions in the companies.