Yolanda Díaz has responded openly to the statements made this Tuesday by the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, who has reported that the employer will not attend the SMI meeting. Thus, the second vice president of the Government has asked the businessmen who comply with her constitutional duty and sit at the social dialogue table scheduled for this Wednesday. The employers, for their part, have announced that they will respond in writing to the Government’s proposals.
Along these lines, the also Minister of Labor has asked employers “to stop working on deferred terms, comply with the constitutional mandate, hold citizens accountable, defend their interests democratically and bring serenity to Spanish society.” Díaz also considers the CEOE’s decision not to attend this Wednesday’s call “very serious”, in which the Government began to discuss the 2023 SMI with the social agents.
“I hope that the CEOE does not catch the political noise that the right-wing is causing in our country,” insisted the second vice president and Minister of Labor in the Senate, along the same lines in which she already spoke on Monday. The CEOE reported last week the breakdown of the dialogue with the Ministry of Labor, after the approval of a compromise amendment to the Labor Law that returns control of the Employment Regulation Files (ERE) to the Ministry.
The employers maintain that this issue was left out of the negotiation of the labor reform, expressly, in order to reach an agreement. After the approval of the amendment, the CEOE considers the Ministry “invalidated as a reliable interlocutor”.
Díaz denies Garamendi
Garamendi assured this Monday that he had learned of the conclusions of the report of the Advisory Commission on the SMI, which strengthened an increase range of between 4.6% and 8.2% for 2023, through the press. The second vice president and Minister of Labor has denied Garamendi’s statements on Tuesday and has assured the president of the CEOE, like the unions, received the details of the report.
“As soon as I received the report, I formally sent it to the social agents, at the same time that I received it,” Díaz told the media in the Senate. The Committee of Experts proposes a range of increases of between 4.6% and 8.2%, which would place the SMI at 1,046 euros gross per month for fourteen payments in the first case and 1,082 euros in the second.
For employers, the reference increase is 3.5% revaluation of the salary of officials, as Garamendi has pointed out. “I am sure that they would not apply it to themselves,” Díaz commented in this regard, and has urged employers to agree on salaries “with a little dignity.”
