Spanish unions want ‘bigger increase’

The latest official figures from the Spanish labour ministry show very small increases in pay in the first four months of the year. Based on 670 agreements covering 3.1 million employees, negotiated pay has increased on average by 0.56%. This is very slightly ahead of the rise in prices which is currently 0.4% (April).

However, the increase is below the guidelines in the three-year pay deal which the two main union confederations, CCOO and UGT, signed with the employers in January 2012. This provided for pay increases of 1.0% in 2014, if Spanish GDP was growing by between 1% and 2%. The latest European Commission forecast is that Spain will grow by 1.1% this year and Ramón Górriz of the union confederation CCOO has called for “a bigger increase in pay” to increase demand in the domestic economy.