The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, confirmed this Monday that his party will support the latest pension reform, as elDiario.es announced last October, with sources from the party leadership. After the news was published, the party rectified the information, because it assured that the decision was not closed. This Monday, Feijóo finally announced the PP’s support for the law, approved at the end of the year by the Government and is the result of a social dialogue agreement with businessmen and unions. Thus, this support guarantees its approval in Congress.
The PP’s position regarding this new pension reform, with changes in partial, delayed and active retirement, is a relevant milestone. Not only because it guarantees the validation of the royal decree-law, in a context of complex parliamentary logic, but because it also represents a change in the attitude of the main opposition party regarding the laws presented by the coalition Executive.
Feijóo explained this Monday that the pact in social dialogue justifies the PP’s support for the law. “There is an agreement and, although we believe that these agreements should be negotiated in the Chamber, we understand that it is sufficient support for the PP to position itself in favor of this royal decree-law,” he stated.
This social agreement, by which the majority unions demanded that the PP support the norm, has not been an impediment, however, for the PP to reject many other reforms agreed upon by the Government in the past, both in pensions and in other labor matters. For example, the first block of changes that linked the pension increase to the CPI again, in which the PP voted against. Or the labor reform, which was carried out barely, after the surprise turn of the UPN parliamentarians and thanks to the wrong vote of a PP deputy.
The leaders of the majority unions, CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, revealed in October that they had asked Feijóo to support this latest pension agreement, which was not guaranteed in an increasingly complex context for the approval of laws. in Congress. Some Government partners, such as ERC, BNG and EH Bildu, had expressed some differences and demanded “changes” from the Executive.
The CEOE business association has not commented on whether Antonio Garamendi discussed this issue with the PP leader, although in the business organization they always defend that they “take responsibility” for the agreements they sign.
Partial retirement, relief contract and more
The latest agreement on pensions includes several measures that encourage the compatibility of the pension with work, such as advancing access to partial retirement, recognizing more rights to the contracts of relievers and encouraging voluntary delay of retirement, through a increasing incentives for delayed retirement, among other measures.
Although the social agreement with unions and employers was reached in the summer, the Government did not approve the royal decree-law with all the changes until the end of December. The unions urged the Executive to approve the rule before the end of the year, for the extension of the most advantageous conditions in partial retirement and relief contracts in the manufacturing industry, which expired on December 31.
However, uncertainty about parliamentary support for the law delayed its approval until the last moment. This Monday, the announcement of the PP represents the guarantee that the reform will be validated, even if some of the Government’s partners distance themselves from the norm.
The CCOO and UGT unions have nevertheless worked for broad support for the reform, which they defend not only for the retirement measures that are proposed in the future, but also for the improvements proposed for workers such as relief workers and people with permanent contracts. discontinuous.
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