The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has been in favor of raising the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) of 2023 “towards the high section” of the recommendation of the Committee of Experts, which would increase this minimum income by 8.2%, which which would mean 1,082 euros gross in 14 payments. “We are going to have a rise in the SMI and we know my vocation, it is the best and most effective measure to combat labor poverty, which substantially affects young people and women,” Díaz said this Monday in statements to the media – which includes Europe Press-, upon arrival an act of Ayuda en Accion.
However, the Minister of Labor has not clarified whether the Government will raise the SMI before the end of the month and has not specified whether it will convene the social agents this week to close this negotiation. Both unions and businessmen have recorded in recent weeks that their role is consultative and that all have already exposed their positions, so they do not see the need for more dialogue tables and a moment for the Executive to make a decision.
The employers, CCOO and UGT opt for different SMI
The social agents have only met once, on December 21. The Government brought to that negotiating table the recommendations made by the Committee of Experts, which proposed an increase range of between 4.6% and 8.2% for 2023. That would be equivalent to setting the SMI for this year between 1,046 euros and 1,082 euros gross per month for fourteen payments. CCOO opts for the upper part of that band, 1,082 euros, with the possibility of extending it to 1,100 euros, a figure advocated by the UGT. The employers, for their part, sent a document in which they proposed a 4% increase, up to an amount of 1,040 euros gross in 14 payments.
The Government has extended the 2022 SMI, of 1,000 euros gross in 14 payments, until the new amount is set for this year. The objective of the Executive is that it remains at 60% of the average Spanish salary. Díaz assured at the end of 2022 that, once the 2023 SMI is approved, it is retroactive from January 1 and opened the door to a review of this income in the middle of the year, based on the behavior of inflation.
agreed shopping cart
On the other hand, Díaz has once again stated on Monday his intention to launch a shopping basket agreed with the distribution actors that had “an immediate effect”. The second vice president has demanded that this basket be agreed “under conditions of public health” and with “quality products”, to guarantee the “right to healthy and healthy food”.
Díaz has admitted that the price of food, which rose 15.7% according to the latest CPI data, is having a “very high” impact on the income of Spanish families, for which reason he considers it urgent to “take a step forward” and approve this shopping basket, “without hindrance” that “the measures that are necessary” are taken later. The second vice president has also asked to wait until the end of the month to find out the impact of the VAT cut on certain products.
Labor Inspection Strike
In addition, Díaz has also provided information on false self-employed persons, who have reached “record numbers” in the regularization of false self-employed persons, with 40,000 in 2022 and more than 80,000 in the last three years. Díaz has specified that these practices “conceal ordinary labor relations at the expense of working people”, in many cases young people, as he has pointed out in statements to the media upon arrival at an Ayuda en Acción act.
“It is the worst practice because there is an avoidance of Social Security contributions. It is a violation of labor rights,” said the second vice president and Minister of Labor. She has also pointed out that these practices “strip and deprive” workers of their rights to mobilise, assembly and collective bargaining.
Díaz thanked the Labor Inspectorate for its work in the regularization of the false self-employed, on the same day that the unions of the organization have called rallies in all the headquarters and have announced a strike this Wednesday, January 25, to demand that the Government compliance with the agreement reached on July 7, 2021.
