The coalition government and the unions agreed on a 2% increase in civil servants’ salaries this year, with the possibility of an additional 0.5% increase depending on the progress of inflation. This was reflected in the “Framework Agreement for a 21st Century Administration”. However, this increase has not been made effective during the first three months of 2024. Now, the moment in which public employees will receive this approved increase is known.
The reason for the delay in the salary increase is very simple, the increases in the payroll of civil servants include the General State Budgets (PGE) and the PGE 2024 have not yet been approved and the procedure does not seem to be going to be simple or immediate.
Finally, the Government has chosen not to wait for the diligence of the PGE and to advance the increase due to complaints from public employees. From the Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants Central (CSIF) they had even threatened with mobilizations in spring to pressure the Executive.
When will the salaries of civil servants increase?
The route chosen to make the salary increase for public workers effective will be the bill to extend economic aid for the War in Ukraine. The Executive has already included an amendment to add the salary increase for civil servants.
It is expected that the measure will be ready after Easter and that it can be applied to the April or May payroll at the latest.
How much will the salary increase be?
The salary increase will be 2% for 2024 and will be collected in April retroactively also for the months of January, February and March.
With this increase, the salaries of officials would be distributed as follows:
With the approval of the increase, an official of Group A1 would receive 77.67 euros if paid in April. That is, the increase of the corresponding month plus the arrears of the previous two months. An additional 0.5% could be added to this increase if the accumulated Harmonized Price Index (HICP) exceeds 8% between September 2022 and 2024, something that seems plausible.
Pending additional 0.5% from 2023
The 2024 increase is not the only delay in the salaries of civil servants. Public workers have also not yet received the extra 0.5% increase in 2023 linked to GDP growth at the end of the year.
This additional increase of 0.5% has not been made effective on all payrolls, as reported by CSIF and would also be retroactive. That is, the Executive will have to apply the increase in payrolls from January to December 2023 and take the data into account to calculate the 2% increase in 2024.
The 2024 increases mark the end of the road for the “Framework Agreement for a 21st Century Administration.” Government and unions will have to renegotiate the salaries of public workers.
For now, the unions have advanced their intention to link the salary increase of civil servants to inflation. That is the proposal of CSIF, which wants to recover this formula that was already applied in the years 2017 and 2018.
