Union urgency for pay deal


Spain’s two main union confederations, CCOO and UGT, are pressing hard for the employers to finally agree a deal on pay for this year. The two sides signed a three-year deal in 2015, which included figures on pay increases for the first two years (2015 and 2016), but left 2017 for later agreement. 


The figures agreed are not binding on local negotiators — more Spanish deals are agreed at provincial level for the industry concerned — but are used as a recommended framework. The issue has been under discussion for months, but a settlement has still not been reached.


Speaking earlier this month, Unai Sordo, the CCOO’s new general secretary said that “if it’s going to be useful in improving pay”, the issue needs to be resolved in July “with or without an agreement”.


The unions are calling for an increase of between 1.8% and 3.0% this year, as well as a mechanism to adjust pay if inflation, currently 1.5% (June), is higher than expected. The employers are close to agreeing the pay figures, but are reluctant to accept the catch-up mechanism.


The latest statistics on settlements, up to the end of June, show pay increasing by 1.3% overall, although the deals signed this year provide a slightly higher increase, at 1.64%, than the 1.23% being paid in 2017 under multi-year settlements signed in previous years.