The Central Sindical Independiente y de Funcionarios (CSIF) considers “insufficient” the 0.5% increase in the salaries of public employees that will be effective in the payroll for the month of October. This increase is applied as a variable linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) within the Framework Agreement for a 21st Century Administration signed by CCOO and UGT with the Government of Spain in October of last year.
After knowing the CPI data, which in Castilla-La Mancha increased by 0.5% in August to stand at 2.9%, CSIF considers that salaries continue to be well below inflation indicators, as reported by the center union in a press release.
Not in vain, the aforementioned agreement established an increase of 6% for three years plus 1.5% in variables until 2024. “Unfortunately, the average CPI in 2022 was 8.4% and the current forecast is for it to be in 2023 at 3.9%. In the best of cases, public employees are losing five points of purchasing power in just two years,” CSIF has criticized.
The president of CSIF Castilla-La Mancha, Julio Retamosa, has highlighted that “any increase is always positive, but in this case it is not only insufficient, but it represents a real injustice for public employees.” "With the public workers they settled for the first offer that the Government put on the table. CSIF did not sign that agreement, it was unthinkable. CCOO and UGT overturned the negotiation that we had managed to start with the massive demonstration that we carried out in Madrid "he lamented.
For all these reasons, CSIF has urged the Government to sit down again with the union organizations present at the General Table of Public Function to renegotiate an agreement that alleviates the loss of purchasing power, which in Castilla-La Mancha has exceeded 20% since 2010, “to which the Cospedal Tax would have to be added”.
“Prices continue to rise, with going back to school more expensive in recent years, with the shopping basket that has risen more than 10%, with fuel prices that continue to rise, and underlying inflation above 6%. We are witnessing widespread impoverishment,” concluded Retamosa.
Translated using Google Translate.