As has been the case for a long time in the final stretch of each year, the Ministry of Labor is going to begin the procedures to address the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) that will be approved for the following year, 2025.
But, unlike on other occasions, now the rise in the SMI is not going to focus all the attention and resources of the department led by Yolanda Díaz. While this increase in lower salaries begins to be addressed, the Galician leader keeps open another of the fronts that will mark the end of the year: reduction of working hours.
These are the two main milestones of a Ministry of Labor that faces the challenge of promoting two important measures in a legislature that is proving to be one of the most unproductive when it comes to legislating (due to the complicated parliamentary arithmetic existing).
However, the path and viability of each of these reforms are very different. The power to raise the minimum wage is exclusive of the Government and its increases are made effective through royal decrees, so it does not need to achieve support in an eventual parliamentary vote.
This Tuesday the Ministry of Labor takes the first formal step to address the increase for next year, the call for the Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the SMI (the group of experts who estimate rise ranges).
60% of the average salary
For some years now, this group has had a double mandate when making its estimates: to respect the maxim of the European Social Charter so that the SMI represents 60% of the average salaryon the one hand; and study and measure the impact that the latest increase has had in reducing gaps such as gender pay or improving the living conditions of poor households or households at risk of poverty.
When the advisory commission delivers its proposal to Díaz, the second vice president of the Government will open a negotiation with unions and employers to try to close an agreement that includes the increase in the SMI. The amount of the minimum wage is the exclusive power of the Executive, but Labor will try to seek a consensus with the social agents.
This year, when the minimum wage went from 1,080 to 1,134 euros gross per month in 14 payments, the employers decided not to sign the agreement and the Government closed it with the unions. From Workers Commissions They state that their position is that the SMI remains at 60% of the average salary; Taking into account that salaries have risen on average by 5%, according to the latest accounting data, the minimum wage, if it rose by the same percentage, would be above 1,190 euros.
The unions ask that the SMI rise between 5% and 6% in 2025
In UGT They have suggested that this increase could even be 6%, which could lead the SMI to overcome the barrier of 1,200 gross euros per month. In any case, it seems difficult that the entire process to increase the amount can be completed before the end of the year, so it is possible that the decree will be approved as early as 2025, with retroactive effect to January 1, as has happened on other occasions. .
At the same time that the process to raise the lowest salaries is underway, Díaz does not lose sight of the need to achieve the necessary parliamentary support to approve the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week.
Last week the Ministry of Labor concluded the social dialogue table, after the employers rejected an agreement, and opened a technical table with the unions to finalize the text (which includes the approval of a record of working hours in digital and electronic companies). interoperable for the Labor Inspection and the regulation of the so-called right to digital disconnection).
Díaz, to Feijóo: “Are you going to do the same as with the labor reform?”
After closing a definitive agreement, the Government will approve this measure and take it to Congress, where needs the votes of conservative forces to move forward (either from the PP or from Junts and the PNV, if those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo choose to reject it).
This Monday, the second vice president and the leader of the PP went to the UGT Confederal Congress. There, during his intervention, Díaz directly asked the Galician leader if his training was going to do with the reduction of the working day “the same as with the labor reform” in Congress, that is, voting against; these words from the minister raised applause from those in attendance.
Labor faces the last months of the year with the rise of the SMI and the reduction of the working day on the horizon, although the two processes could not be more different from each other.
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