Unions and Government agree on a salary increase for the group, which considers it insufficient to alleviate losses of up to 30% in purchasing power | “My remuneration is 800 euros below the Belgian average monthly salary,” explains a communication employee at the Spanish embassy in Belgium.
The conflict Come in labor staff in it foreign spanish service and the Government comes from afar. Local embassy and consulate workers have been denouncing losses of purchasing power and growing precariousness for years. The war in Ukraine and the consequent Inflation -generated, in part, by the energy crisis- push many of these employees to the limit, as denounced in a campaign started on social media.
“I started working about 30 long years ago. When they hired me, my salary was well above the average salary in Belgium. At this time, my remuneration is 800 euros below the Belgian average monthly salary,” he explained to EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, Jose Delfin Suarezworker of the Communication Office of the Spanish embassy in Brusselswhere he works as a media analyst and translator, among other tasks.
He is one of the signatories of a open letter subscribed by staff of the communication offices of the embassies of Brussels, Paris, Berlin, London, Lisbon and Warsaw. “In this way, we denounce our precarious salary and labor situations, the result of more than 13 years of abandonment by the Presidency of the Government, which systematically ignores all the requests for salary updates presented by the Communications directors and the employees themselves,” it reads. the notice.
labor classes
The fundamental and historical basis of conflict is the existence of three job classes within the Spanish Administration abroad: the diplomatic staffthe officials posted abroad and the labor personnel with public employee contracts. The latter are subject, in part, to Spanish labor legislation -above all, as regards the negotiation of collective agreements- and, in part, to the labor legislation of the country of destination -as, for example, in what referring to respect for the minimum wage or occupational safety regulations.
This legal duality has also been a source of unrest. An example was the vote for a works council organized by a German union at the gates of the Spanish embassy in Berlin in 2019: labor personnel had to exercise their right to vote in a van due to the refusal of the Spanish ambassador to allow them to the election took place inside the diplomatic building. It was the way to demand that the right of foreign service personnel -also known as PLEX- to collective bargaining with the Ministry of Finance be recognized.
This last demand was finally met in the last negotiating round between the unions majority Spanish Y Treasury: in an agreement signed last week, the Spanish government recognized the full right to collective bargaining and salary updates for work staff abroad.
In this way, the PLEX -like the rest of civil servants and public workers- will see their salaries increased by 3.5% in 2022, a fixed 2.5% -plus 1% variable- in 2023 and 2% -plus a 0.5% variable- in 2024. The Independent Union and Officials Central (CSIF) did not join the agreement considering it “ridiculous” and a “de facto” “salary freeze” due to the increase in prices.
“Deserted Calls”
members of the PLEX They welcome the measure, but consider it insufficient. “Giving us some oxygen is always welcome news, but we’re talking about a 30% loss of purchasing power“, assures José Delfín. “This agreement is not to retroactively recover the salary capacity, but a transposition of a state agreement to the group abroad,” he points out to EL PERIÓDICO Sebastián Trenado, Secretary General of the UGT Foreign Federation.
UGT and members of the PLEX denounce that the cumulative loss of purchasing power for more than a decade is generating serious problems. On the one hand, there are currently workers from embassies and consulates with salaries below the minimum wage in a country like Australia, for example. On the other, “there are calls for public employment of labor personnel in the embassies that remain deserted. Nobody is interested in going to work for the Spanish Administration as a local employee because the local market offers better conditions,” says Sebastián Trenado, from UGT.
Until the closing of this edition it was impossible to obtain an official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the recent wage agreement reached between the majority unions and the Ministry of Finance, nor an official response to the complaints made public by PLEX staff about their precarious situation.
Spanish Presidency of the EU
José Delfín, from the Brussels embassy, considers that this situation has come to be for two fundamental reasons: “administrative silence” of successive governments to the demands of the PLEX staff and the Historical “lukewarmness” of the majority unions before a situation that long ago was “unsustainable”. “The workforce of embassies and consulates is condemned to the most absolute precariousness“, summarizes the worker of the Communication Office of the Spanish embassy in Belgium.
Spain will assume the rotary presidency of the EU the second semester of 2023, with the consequent additional work for the diplomatic network of the State in Europe, especially in Brussels. “If from now until that date our demands have not been met, I am sure that the Belgian staff will take measures in this regard,” warns José Delfín.