On Monday, the “UGT” union and the “CEOE” and “SIBMI” employers’ organizations ratified the “Collective Negotiation and Employment Agreement”, according to what the organizations announced on their websites.
The other major trade union federation, the Workers’ Committees (CCO), is expected to ratify the agreement on Tuesday.
The agreement calls for a 4% wage increase in 2023, followed by two consecutive increases of 3% in 2024 and 2025. A further 1% increase is planned if inflation returns to very high levels, said the UGT in its press release.
The inflation rate reached 4.1% in April over one year, after having reached record levels of more than 10% during the summer.
But this framework agreement will not lead to an automatic and general increase in wages in the country, but rather serve as the basis for collective bargaining in various sectors.
In its statement, the UGT said the deal represented “a starting point to enable a fairer sharing of wealth”.
The left-wing government welcomed this agreement.
As soon as an agreement in principle was announced on Friday, Communist Minister of Labor Yolanda Diaz thanked “the social partners for this very important agreement aimed at protecting wages”.
For his part, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that “there is more social peace in Spain than in most countries of the European Union because there is a social dialogue that the government has restored” since the return of the left in power in 2018.
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