loss of purchasing power of workers in the face of the inflationary escalation that the economy is going through, has forced to revise many collective agreements to incorporate wage improvements for the coming years, while unions mobilize in others to achieve this objective.
At the moment, the average wage increase agreed in a collective agreement – with which about 35% of workers in Spain is protected – was 1.69% until November, but it is still well below the inflation rate that stood at 6.8% in that month, according to the advance data.
BANKS WILL RAISE WAGES BY 4.5% IN 2023
One of the sectors that has just announced salary revisions is the financial sector after the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CCOO and UGT have agreed on a salary increase of 4.5% for 2023, instead of the 1.25% initially planned.
The agreement, which involves the revision of the agreement that was in force until December 2023, includes the consolidation of an additional 3.25 points, which will begin to be received from next January 1.
The measure is adopted based on the known CPI and, once the final and business profits of 2022 are known, they will urge that the Sectoral Observatory be reopened, and where appropriate, the Negotiating Committee of the Agreement to adopt new compensatory measures.
The perfumery sector has also recently reached with the unions a new state agreement, valid for four years (2022-2025), which sets a salary increase of 15.5% and has retroactive effects from January 1, 2022.
The agreement, which also includes salary update clauses, has been reached after eleven months of meetings and assemblies.
The catering sector in Spain has also closed a new agreement for 2022-2024, which sets wage increases of 3% in 2022, 2.5% in 2023 and 2.5% in 2024, which will apply to more than 100,000 people. It also includes revisions of 0.5% with a cap of 2%.
Progress has also been made in service stations after the Spanish Association of Retail Sellers of Fuels and Fuels (Aevecar), CCOO and UGT reached a preliminary agreement that contemplates a minimum increase in wages of 9% during the three years of validity.
This preliminary agreement, which extends to 50,000 workers and also includes an annual review clause at 75% of the real CPI, allowed the concentration scheduled for the beginning of the month to be called off.
In the customer service centers, CCOO and UGT have reached an agreement in principle with the Association of Customer Experience Companies (CEX) for the signing of a new agreement that includes a salary increase of 3.5% for 2022 and 2023 and 3% for 2024. For 2025 it will be CPI compliant with a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 3.5%, while for 2026 it will increase according to the CPI plus 0.5% with the same limit.
In the aviation sector, Iberia has just signed the X collective agreement for pilots that includes a minimum 10% salary increase until the end of 2023, and hopes to reach an agreement with cabin crew.
MORE THAN 4% IN DEPARTMENT STORES AND DISTRIBUTION CHAINS
In the case of department stores, the union Fetico, majority, proposes that wages in stores of department stores and chains such as El Corte Inglés, Carrefour (EPA:CARR), Alcampo, Ikea or Leroy Merlin rise by 18% in four years, at a rate of more than 4.2% per year, to reach an average salary of 18,227 euros in 2026.
For its part, the union group Fasga proposes to raise that percentage to exceed 19% in the negotiation of a new agreement that brings together more than 230,000 employees.
DAY (BME:DIDA) Spain and the unions Fetico, CCOO and UGT FeSMC have signed the V collective agreement, which will be valid until 31 December 2024, and which includes salary increases of between 8 and 12%.
Mercadona, the largest employer in the distribution sector in Spain with more than 93,000 workers, has not yet communicated how much the increase will be for 2023, but in 2022 it already raised wages by 6.5% and salary increases are linked to the CPI.
Also in the footwear sector, workers have just staged the first strike in 45 years to demand a wage increase of 12.5% from January and a commitment to increase for the next four of 15%, depending on inflation.
In parallel, there are companies that are promoting the payment of extraordinary punctual amounts to their workers to raise their income without having to modify their agreements.
This is the case of Mapfre (BME:MAP), which will pay its more than 10,000 employees in Spain an additional 400 euros, coinciding with the extra Christmas pay. The measure, which excludes the management team, is added to the contribution of 300 euros already made in July.
