The Ministry of Worked has summoned the social agents for next Tuesday, January 31, to address the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) for 2023, according to sources from Yolanda Díaz’s department. The meeting, which will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, aims to continue negotiating to try to reach an agreement, according to the same sources.
The head of Labor advanced last Wednesday that she would summon employers and unions “immediately” to a new meeting of the dialogue table to address the rise in the SMI, although without specifying the date. Díaz defends that the SMI is the “most effective” measure to get out of the crisis and “compensate for the loss of purchasing power” that families are experiencing. She has been in favor of raising the SMI of 2023 “towards the high section” of the recommendation of the committee of experts, which would increase this minimum income by 8.2%, up to 1,082 euros gross in 14 payments.
For her part, the First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calvinohas asked that a “good balance” be sought “within” the range of increases recommended by the experts, from 4.6% to 8.2%, so that it is compatible with job creation. The social partners have only met with Labor on one occasion, on December 21. The Government brought to that table the recommendations made by the commission of experts, which proposed raising the SMI in this financial year between 46 and 82 euros per month, which would place this minimum income between 1,046 euros and 1,082 euros gross per month for fourteen payments.
CCOO opts for the upper part of that band, 1,082 euros, with the possibility of extending it to 1,100 euros, a figure advocated by the UGT. The employers, for their part, did not appear at that first meeting, but sent a document proposing a 4% increase, up to an amount of 1,040 euros gross per month in 14 payments. Both the unions and the employers insist that the decision is on the Labor table, since they, as social agents, have already presented their positions and fulfilled their advisory role, as established in article 27 of the Workers’ Statute.
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The Government has extended the 2022 SMI, of 1,000 euros gross in 14 payments, until the new amount is set for this year. The Executive’s objective and commitment is to reach 60% of the average Spanish salary. Díaz assured at the end of 2022 that, once the 2023 SMI was approved, it would be retroactive from January 1 and opened the door to a review of this income in the middle of the year, depending on the behavior of inflation.
The CCOO’s secretary for Trade Union Action, Mari Cruz Vicente, will attend Tuesday’s meeting, while its deputy general secretary for Trade Union Policy, Fernando Luján, and the union’s confederal secretary are expected to attend on behalf of the UGT , Patricia Ruiz. It remains to be seen if the CEOE will appear at the meeting, since at the first and only meeting of this table, on December 21, it did not attend due to its discomfort with Labor due to the introduction of an amendment in the Employment Law that gave the Labor Inspectorate the control of the causes of the collective dismissals and because that appointment coincided with the celebration of the Board of Directors of the employer, the first after the re-election of Garamendi as president of the CEOE.