Employers and unions do not reach a negotiation agreement for the 2022 wage increase

Negotiations on the wage increase for this year end without an agreement. This was decided at the meeting on Thursday between the employers CEOE and Cepyme and the unions CCOO and UGT. In this way, at least for the moment, a wage pact between the social partners for 2022 is discarded.

The proposals exchanged have ultimately failed to achieve a resolution for both sides on wage matters. All in spite of the fact that the President of the Government asked the social agents for an agreement within a “pact” to tackle the inflation derived from the rise of prices and the energy crisis.

In this sense, employers have based their refusal to renew the AENC (Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining) on that increasing the minimum wage would also increase economic uncertainty, that is, there would be a feedback scenario for inflation. “The positions remain far apart between the parties and the agreement does not seem possible at the moment”, has said the CEOE in this regard.

For its part, CCOO has recognized that there is an “insurmountable difference” in wage negotiations. And precisely the big stumbling block in the talks is in the wage review clause to allow adjusting wages to changes in the consumer price index (CPI).

In this context, trade unions have warned that the priority must be the economic security of workers. ” For CCOO, taking into account the growth of inflation, instability and price uncertainty, the wage review clause is fundamental, as the only guarantee of maintaining the purchasing power of wages,” he explained in a statement.

After this blockade of the “pact”, it is now to be seen what the government will do. However, today the president of the employers, Antonio Garamendi, has warned that in this matter the Executive “should not intervene”.