This Monday, UGT has toughened its position towards the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and has announced that it will not participate again in the social dialogue table until the issues that, according to the complaint, have been pending for nearly two years are resolved. Among them, the partial retirement of public administration staff, the coefficients applicable to maximum pensions after employment regulation files (ERE) and the coefficients that reduce the retirement age for arduous or dangerous activities.
The warning was issued after the meeting held this Monday to advance the improvement of Temporary Disability (IT), which concluded without substantial progress. At the end of the meeting, the executive secretary of UGT, Cristina Estévez, accused Social Security of failing to comply with the commitments made. “They are breaking their word,” he denounced, and has reproached those responsible for the department headed by Elma Saiz for turning a “deaf ear” to the issues that the union considers priority.
According to Estévez, the Ministry would be focusing the negotiations on the issues that interest it, such as the reduction of costs associated with IT, without addressing the rest of the issues involved. “What we are having is the perception that the agreements serve to take photos and not for what we really think they should serve, to change the lives of working people, to make a better life, to protect their rights, to protect their health,” he stated in a video sent to the media.
One of the points that has generated the greatest discomfort is the lack of convocation of the Evaluation Commission in charge of analyzing requests for the application of reducing coefficients in dangerous or painful activities. This body must receive the files and supervise the technical reports of the sectors that request the reduction of the retirement age, but, according to UGT, it has not yet been formally established.
The union organizations had already warned that they would not sign new agreements until the pending commitments were resolved. This Monday, UGT has gone one step further and announced that they will not agree to anything again at the social dialogue table “as long as” it is not to specifically address those pending issues.
“It would be absurd to re-sign an agreement when we do not have the guarantees that it will be fulfilled,” said Estévez, who described the meeting held this Monday as “unfruitful” and criticized the fact that it was called “without an agenda again.”
The employers demand regulatory measures
In parallel, the CEOE has asked to advance measures related to Temporary Disability that can be adopted through regulation, while negotiations continue on possible structural solutions regarding medical leave.
“These are technical issues,” employers’ sources said after the meeting, which concluded with little news. The business organization has repeatedly warned of the increase in absenteeism from work in Spain, which amounts to an annual cost of 33,000 million euros for companies and the Administration.
The clash between unions and the Ministry, together with pressure from employers to expedite regulatory changes, introduces new tension at the social dialogue table in a sensitive area. The regulation of medical leave and early retirement not only has a direct impact on the protection of workers, but also on the financial balance of the system and business costs in a context of growing concern about absenteeism.