The UGT leader asks Escrivá to repeal the 2013 Rajoy reform as a starting point for the negotiation on pensions
The Secretary General of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has asked Minister José Luis Escrivá that the social dialogue on the future of pensions that will begin in September starts with the repeal of the Rajoy reform of 2013. Álvarez has responded with that claim to the head of Social Security in his response to the letter that the minister addressed to the leaders of the employers' associations and majority unions to summon them to the first meeting on the promised pension reform.
The Toledo Pact sets its sights on September to try to close the agreement on the pension reform
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"Any negotiation on this matter that seeks to reach a consensus must first rebalance a situation that, in our opinion, is unsustainable", writes Pepe Álvarez in his letter to Escrivá, for which he adds that "to reach that balance it is necessary to repeal the pension regulation reform implemented in 2013, canceling the currently in force pension revaluation index, together with the so-called sustainability factor ".
In the direction of the UGT they highlight to elDiario.es that the 2013 Rajoy pension reform, which the PP Government approved unilaterally, is still in force although it is not being applied at the moment. For this reason, they consider it essential to cancel the pension revaluation index, which represents an annual increase of 0.25% in pensions if it is not legislated to avoid it, and the sustainability factor, whose entry into force was postponed until 2023.
"Any meeting that does not start from these budgets seems to us far from the postulates that are part of not only the criteria of this union organization, but also the government program of which you are part," Pepe Álvarez directs Escrivá, according to the letter that you have been able to consult this medium.
Pensions are back on the agenda
On August 6, Minister José Luis Escrivá called in a letter to the leaders of the CEOE and Cepyme employers' associations and the general secretaries of CCOO and UGT to the first negotiation meeting on pensions, with a date yet to be determined in September, to advance social dialogue on the matter in parallel to the political negotiation that takes place in the Toledo Pact. The parliamentary commission on the future of pensions has set its sights on the month of September to try to finally close its recommendations, although several parties warn of the fear of setting a date and not meeting expectations, as has happened in the past.
The pension reform thus returns to the forefront of the social and political agenda, after the coronavirus crisis postponed the debate in favor of more urgent ones, such as the protection of people in poverty with the introduction of the minimum vital income. The initial plans of Minister Escrivá sought undertake the pension reform before the end of 2020 And, although there is no date on the horizon to approve the new legislation, the head of Social Security has recognized that the pandemic has altered the calendar.
