Government and unions negotiate to improve the salaries of civil servants and apply the new interim rules
The Ministry of Finance and Public Function has met this Thursday with CCOO, UGT and CSIF, majority unions among public personnel, to open the negotiation of different pending matters that the group of civil servants and workers of the administration have for the next years. The unions have highlighted that one of the matters to be addressed in the next meetings will be the improvement in wages, which in 2021 has been 2%, compared to a CPI that was widely higher. Sources from the Ministry explain that it is a follow-up table for pending issues in matters of Public Function and that for the moment, by the Administration, the salary issue has not been addressed.
At the first meeting, held this Thursday, the schedule of meetings to be held in the coming weeks has been established. The objective, the unions report, is "to negotiate a new agreement within the Public Administrations and the public business sector". In a joint statement they have focused on the salary aspect, lamenting the impact of the CPI on salaries. "We have summoned ourselves to reach a new agreement that allows us to improve purchasing power," said Francisco Lama, CSIF union action secretary.
In any case, the salary improvement will be addressed for future years, since there are no review clauses for this course. "With this year's inflation we drag a loss of purchasing power of 13%, it is unsustainable," Lama insisted. The unions assure that they come to the table with "ambitious" objectives
It is not the only aspect on the table. Once the Government achieved in Congress the approval of the new interim law, with which it tries to reduce temporary work in the public sector, unions and the Executive will now discuss the new calls for public employment at the open table this Thursday. "The unions have requested that the development of the selective processes derived from the new law must offer legal certainty and guarantee the principle of equity to avoid harmful situations for the applicants," the workers' representatives have assured in their release. "It is also necessary to streamline the calls for the stabilization process in the Public Administrations," they say, referring to the new merit competitions that interims have to pass in order to obtain a fixed position without having to go to new calls for oppositions.
This is one of the main issues open to both the Government and the unions. The workers' representation organizations have requested that a registry be created that quantifies the specific number of public places that must go to these stabilization processes. In other words, how many positions have been held by interims since before January 1, 2016, the date established by the new interim law, and which must go out to a merit contest to reduce temporary employment in the public sector.
The open table this Thursday includes other fundamental aspects for this group, which the unions have been demanding for a long time. These issues refer to the digitization of the Administration, the retirement of the public employee or internal promotion and mobility. In addition, unions are also claiming an improvement in the design of the professional career of workers.
The parties will meet again on February 10. The unions mark the month of June to be able to have a document that establishes the general lines of improvements in labor aspects for public workers.
