The meeting of the Ministry of Social Security with the social agents, held this Monday afternoon, has concluded without an agreement, although both the team of José Luis Escrivá and the UGT and CCOO have recognized that there have been “significant advances” and that “the agreement is could close tomorrow”, once they receive a new proposal from the Executive with the changes addressed.
“The agreement is almost imminent, it could be closed tomorrow once we receive the Ministry’s proposal,” said Fernando Luján, UGT’s deputy secretary of Union Policy and pension negotiator, who has also indicated that the bodies of his union will meet on Wednesday to ratify the agreement if it occurs.
For the unions, the proposal that Escrivá presented on Friday had three main problems: the measures to correct the gender gap in pensions were not enough, the articles did not clearly guarantee a floor for minimum and non-contributory pensions, and the surcharge of solidarity -the new contribution that will be applied to salaries that are above the maximum contribution base and that until now were exempt from contribution- should not have a ceiling.
The draft of the royal decree-law presented on Friday, to which EL MUNDO had access, established that the General State Budget law of each year would establish that maximum salary on which the surcharge would be applied, which will consist of a contribution of 6 % -being in charge of the employer 5% and the worker 1%-.
“We have asked that the Budgets limit the scope of the solidarity quota be removed and the Government has agreed to remove it, but it has not yet accepted or we have not definitively resolved the extension of the additional solidarity contribution. We await the text that they will send us again tomorrow to see what the matter is,” said Carlos Bravo, CCOO’s confederal secretary of Social Security and Complementary Social Welfare. This union has also convened on Wednesday morning the confederal council, the highest body between congresses, to make the decision.
Since CEOE and Cepyme are not going to participate in the agreement, the unions are pressing the Government to go even further with their proposal and further increase the contribution that will apply to the highest salaries and that will be paid both by the workers themselves and by your company, without generating the right to receive more benefits.
In addition to this fringe, the unions have requested modifications in the integration of gaps, “because there has not been a sufficient specification” and also a proposal that includes all minimum pensions, not only non-contributory ones but also contributory ones.
Sources from the Ministry have indicated that the meeting has ended with “important progress” and that “intensive work is being done to close an agreement.” At the moment they have not summoned the social agents for a new meeting, but first they will send a last proposal to see if it is accepted by the organizations of Pepe Álvarez and Unai Sordo.
The CEOE, for its part, has confirmed that it will not enter into the agreement: “We have been told loud and clear that they do not have time to enter into other approaches to expand income, such as through personal income tax, VAT or other taxes more distributive, so with these wickers an agreement is impossible”, said Rosa Santos, director of the CEOE Labor Relations department, at the end of the meeting.
“We will continue collaborating with our contributions until the last moment to the articles as we always do,” he said, in any case. In the event that new meetings take place, the employer will attend.
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