The government has agreed to increase the minimum wage by 8% after more than a month of negotiations with trade unions CC.OO and UGT, but without the support of the main employers’ association, CEOE.
The left-wing government will increase the minimum wage (SMI) to €1,080 gross in 14 payments, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a preliminary agreement on Tuesday between the Spanish Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz (Unidas Podemos, GUE-NGL), the Secretary General of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, and Unai Sordo CCOO.
In a speech in the Senate, Sánchez recalled the loss of purchasing of wages in Spain over the last decade, which he blamed on a lack of political responsibility and also on the private sector’s lack of “solidarity” with the working class.
The socialist prime minister defended the increases in the minimum wage approved since he took office in the face of the “staunch opposition of the neoliberals”, he said.
Díaz expressed her satisfaction with the agreement, which, she said, is good news for the workers, who are “the ones who are suffering from the loss of purchasing power.”
It is a “bipartite” agreement that has been reached with the unions “within the framework of social dialogue”, an “extremely important” agreement, Díaz explained.
CCOO and UGT demanded a 10% increase, up to €1,100, while Díaz had already advocated the upper band of an expert committee’s report, which proposed a rise of between 4.6% and 8.2% for the upcoming year.
The Ministry of Labour, in a press release, recalled that in the last five years, the minimum wage has risen by 47%, or € 344 per month, and pointed out that this new increase “will make it possible to alleviate wage poverty and reduce the gender gap”.
In Portugal, the minimum wage is €760, in France €1,465, Germany €1,703, Luxembourg €2,046, and Bulgaria €341, according to Eurostat data.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
