Unions and employers are directly opposed to extending the pension calculation period, which is one of the main points raised by the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security in its reform proposal. Minister José Luis Escrivá’s opposition to this approach was already known, which would mean going from the current 25 years of calculation to 30, with the important addition that the two worst years can be excluded. However, at this morning’s meeting of the dialogue table, the refusal of the social agents has grown in categoricalness.
On behalf of the CC.OO., its general secretary, Unai Sordo, has described this proposal as the element that is distorting the negotiation and rejects it outright. They will not even enter to negotiate it. “What we have to do is negotiate the rest of the measures, and at this moment, it is not that we are not in a position to agree, we are not even in the business of negotiating a measure that is neither necessary at this time nor does it have political endorsement. necessary to get ahead.”
For its part, the CEOE has challenged both the way in which the Ministry of Inclusion is conducting the negotiations and the content. “We do not understand the role of the social partners in this process,” they have said, complaining about how late the proposals arrive when they have to be approved before January 31. Regarding the calculation period, they emphasize that it is not in the agreements of the Toledo Pact and that no impact study has been carried out, which “a priori, will be negative on most pensions.”
On the other hand, the Ministry of Inclusion does not consider that there is a negative impact, but that the change “better protects the pensions of new entrants in the labor market against less linear, increasingly frequent career paths.”
On the other hand, the employers are also opposed to the second major element of Escrivá’s proposal, which is the increase in the contribution of the maximum base. His complaint is, from the outset, that it increases the labor cost for companies in more highly qualified positions; and also that while the contribution increases by about 30% in 25 years, the pension that will be collected will only rise by 3% in this period.
As proposed in the proposal, the increase in the maximum bases is accompanied by an increase in the maximum pension, but with a time lag. According to the proposal, to which La Vanguardia has had access, between 2025 and 2050, in addition to inflation, the contribution base would rise 1,154 points, while in the case of the maximum pension it is limited to 0.115 points. It is also added that from the year 2050, “an additional increase will be applied until reaching a real accumulated increase of 30%”.
