Since the end of 2016, discussions between the social partners on a framework for salary recommendations, which should have come into force on 01 January 2017, and which should allow businesses to review their pay scales and salary systems, have ground to a halt. Relations have recently soured and the CEOE employers have responded to the CCOO and UGT’s mobilization plans to “break the impasse” by delivering their own negotiation agenda that downgrades the topic of salaries. In a letter, the CEOE proposes reviewing union representativeness, examining credit hours for worker representatives and overhauling the right to strike. Unions see these demands as amounting to a declaration of war.
According to the 2015-2017 collective agreement, (c.f. article No. 9080) the parties committed to negotiating a salary benchmark index that would be defined in line with changes in the country’s economic situation. And this is where the similarities end. Unions are banking on an economic recovery for the country to loosen years of workers being under the stranglehold of moderate wages and allow them to enjoy a share of the country’s growth, since 2016 GDP rose by 3.2% and forecasts for 2017 are
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