The CEOE accuses Díaz of "trivializing" the "serious problem" of the deficit of workers
The president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva. /
The president of Cepyme calls out the vice president as "irresponsible" while Antonio Garamendi asks to reevaluate whether pensions should rise with the CPI
Relations between the Government and businessmen are not going through their best moment after a hard and long stage of the pandemic in which they reaped numerous agreements. A total of 15. However, businessmen have taken out the hatchet at the beginning of the year and have raised their voices against the Executive, showing their disagreement with the latest measures approved, such as the new intergenerational equity mechanism, the rise in minimum wage or the battery of measures against the war that they describe as insufficient and late.
If until now there seemed to be a kind of pact of silence and non-aggression, there are more and more criticisms from the bosses about Moncloa. And this Tuesday the businessmen returned to the fray, with two reproaches both to the pension reform and to the response -or, in their opinion, the absence of response- of the Ministry of Labor to the lack of labor in some sectors of the Spanish labor market.
The president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva, accused the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, of "once again trivializing a serious problem for Spain, such as the deficit of workers." Cuerva made these statements before dozens of businessmen, during the closing of the Cepyme general assembly, and one day after the Ministry of Labor met with the social agents to address the more than 100,000 job vacancies and concluded that there is no structural problem of lack of labor in the labor market and that if they are lacking in some sectors, such as the hotel industry, it is because they are poorly paid and endure very long working hours without breaks.
From the employers they stressed that they have detected a problem and raised to 100,000 jobs in the hospitality industry that are not currently covered, as well as warned that in the coming years there could be some 700,000 vacancies in construction. For this reason, Cuerva described Díaz's statements as "irresponsible", assured that it is "false" that it is a wage problem and expressed his concern that they do not offer solutions to a problem.
"Liquidating a problem of this magnitude with the demagogic and false message that we pay little, makes me conclude that, in this, as in other matters, the Government does not intend to do anything," criticized the CEOE vice president, who lamented that the Executive continue "without facing the structural reforms that correct the weaknesses" of the Spanish productive fabric.
Against the rise in pensions
His harsh words came hours after another criticism from the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, he joined the critical voices against the reform recently approved by Minister José Luis Escrivá and demanded that the Toledo Pact reevaluate whether pensions should rise with the CPI.
«There is a people who is responsible, which is the Spanish Parliament, they are the political groups, it is the Toledo Pact. There is a comment from the EU that is clearly saying that you have to look at it and it is not worth putting patches and saying I do it this way or I do it another way, I have elections the day after tomorrow, I don't have them", defended Garamendi, who stressed that "An income agreement does not only mean talking about salaries, it means that we talk about pensions, which is not talked about, about the salaries of public employees, which is not talked about...".
