CEOE "will not be in the agreement" on the SMI although it will go to the next meeting with Labor

MADRID, 10 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of ATA and vice president of the CEOE, Lorenzo Amor, stated this Wednesday that CEOE "will not be in the agreement" on the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) because the requirements demanded in this negotiation have not been met: indexation of the SMI to public contracts and bonuses for the rural sector.

"We will be at the next meeting that is called, but they already have the answer. And I say they have it, because in these circumstances, what we are not going to engage in is blackmail. Social dialogue is many things but in "The spirit of social dialogue has no place in threats or blackmail," Amor stressed.

At a press conference to present the ATA 2024 Barometer, the president of ATA indicated that the CEOE's position has been "coherent", proposing an increase of 3% for the SMI plus 1% if inflation is exceeded, in in line with what was agreed with the unions in the agreement pact.

On the other hand, Amor has denounced, the Ministry of Labor, "surprisingly", introduced a new criterion at last Monday's meeting on the SMI: "We are being blackmailed. Either you are in a 4% increase or you face the consequences." "Does this mean that if there is an agreement, the workers get a 4% raise and if there is disagreement, the workers get a 5% raise? That's a new criterion, right?" he criticized.

In principle, the next meeting between the Ministry of Labor and social agents to address the increase in the 2024 SMI will be held next Friday. The rejection of the employers' association means that the Government will have to seek an agreement with the unions to increase this minimum income, currently situated at 1,080 euros per month for fourteen payments.

Amor explained that when the first meeting with Labor was held last December, the businessmen were "optimistic" regarding the possibility of reaching an agreement with unions and the Government for the increase in the SMI in 2024, a possibility that has been diluted. in the face of the refusal to index the SMI to public contracts, a measure that, according to Amor, Labor agreed with and that has been denied by the Treasury.

"We, when we go to a table, we sit with the Government, not with two or three (...) The surprising thing is that on Monday what had been said in December was denied. And we were told that this had to go to another table," he denounced.

Amor has stated that to this I have added an "attitude of blackmail" on the part of the Ministry of Labor, that if employers did not accept a 4% increase in the SMI, they would suffer a "punishment."

"If there had been a photo and agreement, the ones who would be punished would be the workers. Since there is no photo and agreement, the ones who would be punished would be the businessmen. This is very striking," said Amor, who in any case has assured that "dialogue tables are open in all areas."

TO THE NEGOTIATION TABLES BUT "WITH WISH"

In this sense, the vice president of the employers' association has stated that there will be aspects in which agreements can be reached with the Government and others in which these are not possible. But he has acknowledged that they come to the tables "with a little misgivings", since the Executive has already skipped, for example, the labor reform agreement.

"We must not forget that practically a few months after such an important agreement with the labor reform, the Government has skipped that agreement with a political agreement in the area of ​​the prevalence of autonomous agreements. This is circumventing social dialogue and a lack of respect for agreements and social dialogue," he denounced.

For this reason, he has insisted on "loyalty" to what was agreed and that the agreements "are there to be fulfilled."

Regarding the impact of a new increase in the SMI, Amor has stressed that when talking about this "we must forget about employment in general" and think about the sectors where this minimum wage is, concentrated in the field of care and the Social Security Regime. Home.

"And there we are seeing a loss of workers, also in the agrarian regime. It is certainly a barrier to the incorporation of young people into the labor market," argued Amor, who added that, when it comes to raising the SMI, "for above whether or not there is a photo", this must be taken into account and also the economic forecasts for 2024, less extraordinary than those for 2023.