The unions reject the proposal to increase the interprofessional minimum wage by 3% for 2024 proposed by the CEOE and demand that the revaluation be greater. In a joint statement, UGT and CCOO consider the employers’ approach “insufficient”, although they positively value the will expressed by the businessmen in their “offer”.
UGT and CCOO also defend that the increase in the SMI also takes into account “the evolution of the prices of basic products”, that is, food. The general secretaries of both organizations have spoken out today in this sense. For Unai Sordo, the Government’s decision must take into account “how the prices of the basic products of the lowest earners are rising, and that increase is greater than 3%.” Pepe Álvarez considers that the increase in the shopping basket “is one of the criteria that we have to place” in the decision.
Sordo added that the increase in the SMI also has to take into account how average salaries are rising, an increase of 5.2%.
The union centers also consider that the SMI must “guarantee compliance with the mandate of the European Social Charter”, which states that it should be 60% of the average salary in the country, as stated in the investiture agreement sealed. between the PSOE and Sumar. Álvarez has stated that UGT has “three clear references” to calculate that percentage: the data from Social Security, the Tax Agency and Eurostat. Last week, Álvarez himself placed the SMI level at around 1,200 euros per month.
For UGT and CCOO, linking SMI with the V AENC, as the employers’ association did in its proposal, is not a good option. “The AENC includes clauses linked to the evolution of inflation, common in collective agreements, but difficult to apply in a Minimum Wage,” they have defended in their joint positioning.
The unions have expressed their “willingness to negotiate, as always, the increase in the Minimum Wage” and have demanded that the Government “convene the social partners as soon as possible to address this process.”
The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, stated this Thursday that the CEOE proposal is well received, but has also warned that inflation will be decisive when it comes to closing a figure.
Díaz has highlighted that year-on-year inflation will range between 3.7% and 3.8% in November, a figure above the CEOE proposal, although the employers’ association assured in its approach that it took into account “variables foreseen in the article 27.1 of the Workers’ Statute, like the CPI.” “Faced with an unprecedented inflation crisis like we have in our country, we are going to undertake the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage,” the minister emphasized.
Díaz has also highlighted today that one of his objectives for this legislature is to work in favor of economic democracy and the participation of workers in their companies, without distinction. “The sovereignty of the people must always be above market laws, which are very restrictive, very exclusive. And it can’t be like that. (…) No one better than a worker to defend their job and, above all, for the proper development of companies,” the minister defended. The Ministry of Labor plans to convene social agents “immediately” to inform them of “the immediate increase in the SMI,” the third vice president has advanced.
Yolanda Díaz has stated that the Government “does not want a society based on low salaries, ‘low cost’, as has been the case in Spain”, but rather a European country in terms of salaries. “We have a negative differential of 25 points with Europe,” she highlighted.
