The Superior Court of Catalonia has rejected the lawsuit brought by UGT-FICA against the Union of Farmers, Young Farmers and Ranchers of Catalonia and the Catalan Agricultural Institute of Sant Isidre, through which they sought the adaptation of the wage tables of the Agricultural Convention of Catalonia to the Interprofessional Minimum Salary (SMI) outside the negotiation of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Until now, UGT had intervened in the agreement negotiations alleging that there is a legal obligation to adapt the salary tables to the SMI. The union’s position had meant blocking dialogue between organizations by judicializing the situation.
On the other side, as expected, employers and agricultural organizations have defended themselves assuming that there is no such obligation and that negotiations must be resumed from scratch.
The ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has acquitted the organizations that represent the employers, resolving that there is no legal obligation to adapt the salary tables and emphasizing the application of article 27 of the Workers’ Statute.
The Court understands that the average salaries of the previous year exceeded the current SMI, so it does not give rise to an equalization in this case.
Therefore, the TSJC highlights that, as the organizations defend, this is a matter that corresponds to the negotiators within the framework of the exercise of the right to collective bargaining proclaimed in article 37 of the Constitution.
The employers regret the delay in the negotiations of the Collective Agreement caused by the blockade – according to them, totally unjustified – by UGT-FICA, and highlights the importance of these negotiations since the last Collective Agreement provided for a validity until December 2020 .
