Once the final CPI for this year is known and also the corporate earnings of the sector, both parties will take new compensatory measures
The Spanish Bankers’ Association (AEB) agreed this Tuesday with the CCOO and UGT on an increase of 4.5% by 2023 in the salary tables for bank employees, compared to the 1.25% foreseen in the current collective agreement. This was confirmed by both sides through separate public statements.
Both unions represent 71.38% of the workforce and the negotiations have taken place in the context of the reopening of the current collective bargaining agreement, which currently expires on December 31, 2023. Once the CPI data is final, so will the business benefits of the sector in 2022 (around February), both unions intend to push for the reopening of the Sectoral Observatory and, if appropriate, that of the agreement’s negotiating committee to take new compensatory measures.
The employers’ association, representing banks such as Santander, BBVA, Bankinter or Sabadell, and trade unions CCOO, UGT and FINE reopened negotiations on the collective agreement on Tuesday to tackle the wage increase in the face of an “exceptional” situation of high inflation . The president of the AEB, Alejandra Kindelán, announced this himself hours earlier in a financial meeting.
From the CCOO and the UGT, they emphasize that it is a “precedent of enormous importance” that the AEB has reopened negotiations on a concluded and ongoing agreement, “assuming the existence of an exceptional economic situation that could not have been foreseen at the moment of signing the agreement and very different from the one that existed during the negotiations”. For its part, the AEB emphasizes the value of the agreement and believes that both parties have acted “with the responsibility required by the current extraordinary socio-economic circumstances”.
On the contrary, trade union FINE, also present at the negotiating table of the collective banking agreement, has refused to sign the agreement. The main reasons he gives for this are that he is “adjusting only 3.25%” to what was agreed in the agreement – compared to a cumulative increase in CPI of 12.6% between 2021 and 2022 – and he believes that it will not reach to the majority of the workforce, “given the absorbable nature of any supplement regulated in the entities.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
