Government, unions and businessmen begin negotiations next week for the increase in the SMI

The appointment will be on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

MADRID, 26 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Next week, the Government, unions and employers will begin negotiations to set the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) for 2024, the current amount of which amounts to 1,080 euros per month for fourteen payments.

Specifically, the Ministry of Labor led by Yolanda Díaz has summoned CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme next Thursday at 4:00 p.m. to begin conversations, as reported to Europa Press by sources from the Government and social agents.

The Executive is not obliged to negotiate the SMI with the social agents, since the Workers' Statute only mandates it to consult them, but the minister has always tried to move this measure forward with their support.

The increase in the SMI is one of the first measures that Vice President Díaz has set for the new legislature with one objective in mind: that this minimum income, which affects just over two million workers who are not covered by the collective bargaining, do not lose purchasing power in a context of high inflation rates.

The business organizations, which have already made public the proposal that they will bring to the negotiating table, are not opposed to raising the amount of the SMI, but have asked that its increase be limited to 3% in both 2024 and 2025, an approach that To begin with, it does not convince either Díaz or the unions.

Thus, although she has assured that she will take into account the business proposal, the minister reminded CEOE and Cepyme that the interannual inflation in November will range between 3.7% and 3.8%, therefore above the 3% proposed by the patronal.

UGT and CCOO also consider CEOE's offer for the increase in the SMI to be "insufficient" and advocate taking into account, not only the general CPI, but also the evolution of the prices of basic products, such as food, to determine its increase. .

The unions, which for the moment have not offered a specific percentage for the increase in the SMI, have been in favor on numerous occasions of raising the SMI to 1,200 euros per month, which would imply an increase over the current amount of 11.1 %.

The objective, of both the Government and the unions, is to place the SMI at 60% of the average salary, as recommended by the European Social Charter. In this sense, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported last Friday that the average Spanish salary in 2022 was 2,128 euros per month in gross terms. 60% of that amount would be equivalent to about 1,277 euros per month.

Labor once created a commission of experts to advise it on the increase in the SMI, to which Díaz said a few days ago that it will continue in this legislature "with a renewed and broader mandate." Thus, the minister indicated that she will ask this Commission to also evaluate the consequences in terms of equality and inequality that the increase in the minimum wage may have.

In the previous increase in the SMI, that of 2023, the experts made a proposal for an increase that ranged from 4.6% to 8.2%, taking as a reference an estimate of the average salary for 2022, which is now known. Finally, for 2023 and in the midst of the inflationary crisis, the SMI was raised by 8%, within the high band of the Advisory Commission's recommendations.

The roadmap proposed by the CEOE involves raising the SMI by 3% by 2024, from the current 1,080 euros for fourteen payments to 1,112.4 euros per month, and applying another 3% increase by 2025, which would place it at that time at 1,145.77 euros per month. In both cases, the guarantee clause provided for these years in the contract agreement with the unions would be applicable.

In any case, the employers' association specifies that its proposal "has as a sine qua non" the modification of the price review regulations in public sector contracting processes to impact the increase in the SMI on contracts in execution, as It is also included in the V AENC signed by business organizations and unions.

The business approach would imply an increase in the SMI, in two years, of 65.77 euros, the equivalent of a 6% increase compared to the current amount. Thus, the SMI would increase by 32.4 euros next year and by 33.37 euros in 2025, according to the businessmen's proposal.

The organization led by Antonio Garamendi defends that its joint proposal with Cepyme to increase the SMI for 2024 and 2025 is in line with what was agreed with CCOO and UGT in the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC).

The collective bargaining agreement signed by CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme in May of this year recommends salary increases of 3% for both 2024 and 2025, with a salary review clause that, in the event of deviation from inflation, could imply additional increases of up to 1% for each of the years of the agreement (2023-2025).

UGT and CCOO SEE THE EMPLOYERS' PROPOSAL "INSUFFICIENT"

However, the unions understand that the SMI must provide "the minimum of sufficiency and dignity" indicated in the European Social Charter (60% of the average salary), so they do not see it appropriate to link the increases in the SMI to what was agreed in the AENC. .

"The AENC includes clauses linked to the evolution of inflation, common in collective agreements, but difficult to apply in a minimum wage," the unions stressed in a statement released this week.

UGT and CCOO consider that the increase in the SMI has to guarantee compliance with the mandate of the European Social Charter, that is, be equivalent to 60% of the average salary in the country, as stated in the investiture agreement between PSOE and Sumar.

For this reason, union organizations advocate taking into account the evolution of the prices of basic products, such as food, which constitute the fundamental part of the shopping basket of those who receive the basic income, to guarantee that this salary covers the basic needs of working people and their families.

The unions understand that the SMI has to rise taking into account two variables: how average salaries in Spain are evolving, which are around 5.2%, and how the prices of the basic products that make up the basket of the wage are rising. purchase by people who have lower salaries, an increase that is "much higher" than the 3% proposed by the CEOE.

At the beginning of this year, the Government agreed, only with the unions, to raise the SMI by 8% for 2023. Its commitment for this legislature is to establish, by law, that this minimum income must always be equivalent to 60% of the average salary. .

The CEOE also did not join the increases in the SMI for 2022 and 2021 agreed by the Government of Pedro Sánchez with CCOO and UGT, but it did agree with them on the increase in 2020, when it increased from 900 to 950 euros per month.