Manuel Cascos and Gabriel del Pozo.
Medicine and Nursing have received with skepticism Pedro Sánchez’s announcement regarding the salary increase for civil servantswhich according to the Prime Minister will depend on what emerges from the so-called ‘rent agreement’ between employers and unions. The truth is that the conditions that the negotiating parties have put on the table are far from satisfying the demands of CESM and Satsewho ask for next year wage increases of between 6.5 and 7.5 percent to avoid the loss of purchasing power of these professionals due to the increase in inflation.
This is the answer of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) and of Nursing Union (Satse) to the declarations of the head of the Executive, who, in an interview with Antenna 3explained that “the evolution of the negotiation” on the salary of public officialsincluding those in the health field, would be linked to a ‘rent agreement’ focused on distributing the cost of inflation between professionals and companies.
For the moment, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) defends taking as a reference the Underlying inflationso that the salary increase is 3.5 percent this year and 2.5 percent in 2023. They are increases similar to those claimed by the unions (3.4 and 2.5 percent, respectively), although they refuse to waive the salary review clauses.
These increases, in any case, do not meet the expectations of doctors and nurses. From CESM they indicate in this regard that if inflation is situated in the next year in el 7.5 percentthis should be the minimum wage increase.
Progressive loss of purchasing power
Sources from the confederation stress that their claims have focused for years on recovering the 2010 bonus pay cuts and trienniums, “something that has not yet occurred”. In this sense, they point out that “it is not regarding maintaining the purchasing power that was cut and has not been recovered”, but regarding achieving “remuneration more in line with the responsibility of professionals, including MIRs”.
“In short, in addition to recovering the cuts, we have pending an update of the remuneration, including the on-call hoursto get closer to those of Europe, something that even politicians have defended, for whom the only thing left is to go from words to deeds”, emphasizes the confederation, adding that “there should be a rise in all fixed concepts of 150 percent together with a change in the Framework Statute so that the shifts are finally recognized as overtime and can be paid as such”.
“All this, in the case of residents, should be added to a salary increase of 500 euros per month,” they conclude.
Like the doctors, Nursing has been claiming since before the pandemic a minimum annual wage increase of 6.5 percent and denounces that, since the 5 percent salary cut imposed in 2010 by the state government, nurses suffer “a progressive loss of purchasing power that reaches 30 percent.”
Satse sources point out that “it is not correct or logical” that the Government intends to link the increase in the salary of public officials, including health workers, to the collective bargaining that it is carrying out with employers and unions.
“We do not know the reasons that move the Executive of Pedro Sánchez when it comes to trying to relate two completely different labor realities, such as the public and private spheres, which, in addition, is also governed by different agreements and negotiations depending on the activity or companies”, say these same sources, who suggest that, with this proposal, the Government “looking to buy time” instead of undertaking a “necessary” salary increase for public workers.
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