The agreement for employment and social dialogue 2015–2017 was signed by the social partners after long negotiations between trade unions and employer associations.
The deal provides for a 1% pay rise in 2015 and 1.5% in 2016. It marked a turning point after the two previous agreements of 2010 and 2012, which effectively ended in a wage freeze. As well as this, the new agreement is expected to contribute to adapting the labour market to the economic recovery and to leaving the crisis behind. In any case, it is likely that the recovery process of the Spanish economy will still be slow.
On 12 May 2015, social partners finally reached a pre-agreement on wages. The difficulties in agreeing salary increases were hampering the new Agreement for Employment and Social Dialogue 2015–2017, which should have been signed by the end of 2014. In fact, social partners had been discussing for months the evolution of Spanish salaries for the following years, and it was not possible for them to reach an agreement until May 2015 (employers’ representatives were in favour of keeping salary moderation, whereas trade unions argued that Spanish economy was improving and salaries should increase). The pre-agreement provided for a 1% pay rise in 2015, going up to 1.5% in 2016. For the year 2017, the salary increase would be linked to the Spanish GDP and the evolution of the economy. If inflation rises above 2.5% over the 2015-2016 period, the text provides for an automatic review. Thus, this pre-agreement guarantees that salary increases imply a purchasing power increase in relation to the CPI (consumer price index), which was a minimum condition requested by trade unions.
This pre-agreement was signed by the main Spanish trade unions and employer organisations: the trade unions CCOO (‘Comisiones Obreras’, www.ccoo.es ) and UGT (‘Unión General de Trabajadores’, www.ugt.es), and the employer organisations CEOE (‘Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations’, www.ceoe.es) and Cepyme (Spanish Confederation of SMEs, www.cepyme.es). In practice, this agreement acts as a framework for the discussion of other collective agreements (for example, at sectoral or company level). It must be respected by the trade union and employers' organisations which signed it.
The definitive agreement was signed on 8 June. This final agreement replicated the conditions set out in the pre-agreement signed in May.
Against this background, it must be said that the salary pact is a mere recommendation. Thus, employer organisations argued that negotiating parties discussing new collective agreements should take into account the numbers agreed, but in all cases the actual economic conditions of the company/sector should come first. Furthermore, they suggested that salary increases could be divided into ‘units’ or ‘sections’, according to productivity increases, for instance, and linked to the variable part of the salary. As employer organisations are concerned about the fact that many companies are still incurring losses, salary recommendations should be considered in a flexible way, adapting negotiations to each particular case. At the same time, the Spanish Government warns social partners that the improvement in competitiveness reached by the Spanish economy in the last years has been mainly a consequence of salary moderation, so salary increases should be viewed cautiously. Employer organisations support this argument, and wish to avoid competitiveness losses.