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Only 10% of workers covered by a new collective agreement have seen their salaries rise to the same level as inflation
The salaries agreed in agreement by patronal Y unions start 2022 with an average increase of two%, 0.5 points above the December figure, but four points below the inflation registered in January (which was 6%, according to the INE). Also below the increase in the minimum wage agreed between the Government and the unions for this 2022, which will rise 3.6%, to 1,000 euros. This is confirmed by the data published this Thursday by the Ministry of Labor, which has registered a total of 1,554 collective agreements that cover 4.1 million employees. Collective bargaining thus begins the exercise in the same way that the past ended: punishing the workers’ pockets in the face of the inflationary spiral. Last year the average increase in wages agreed by agreement closed with a rise of 1.5%, half the average inflation for the year (3.1%).
The vast majority of agreed specifications were closed with an increase of between 1% and 2%, specifically eight out of 10 workers They have seen their salary increase in that proportion. And only 10% of workers have seen their payrolls grow in the same proportion as inflation, shielded by salary review clauses that legally oblige companies to increase salaries in the same proportion as the CPI. An unusual practice among the Spanish business fabric and that is located mainly in areas where unions have historically had strong representation.
Although this is not always a guarantee that companies comply with it, especially at the present time when the increases usually agreed upon are far from the highest inflation in 30 years. CCOO has announced this Thursday that it has started a collective conflict against the employers of the poultry and rabbit slaughterhouses, alleging that they refuse to immediately comply with their salary review clause and update the 2022 payrolls with the January CPI increase. In agreements such as the Barcelona metallographic or the chocolate industry, the plants denounce the same problem.
Collective bargaining, disoriented
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Collective bargaining has started 2022 with greater dynamism than that registered at the beginning of the previous year. The paralysis that still drags part of the Spanish economy and the inflationary spiral do not contribute to the entente between the negotiators, but this January there are 38.3% more workers covered by renewed agreements than there were last January.
The absence of a Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) does not contribute to accelerating collective bargaining either. This is a kind of ‘agreement of agreements’ in which the leadership of CEOE, CCOO Y UGT they agree on recommendations on how wages should evolve. So that later, sector by sector and province by province, the negotiators apply them. The problem is that currently in the metal of Barcelona -as in the rest of the sectors- they have to renew their agreement without that shared roadmap. This causes the negotiators to look askance at each other, because if the employers accept very high increases, in other sectors the unions will not negotiate for less. And if, on the contrary, the centrals agree not to cover all or part of the rise in the IPC, in other unions the employers will push to lower the bar accordingly.