The Government and the unions CC OO, UGT and CSIF have finally reached an agreement this Wednesday to raise the salaries of 3.5 million public employees. The salary agreement will be accompanied by other commitments on the part of the Executive such as, which limits public employment offers to those due to retirement; or other improvements in terms of selection processes, working hours, professional career, retirement or work permits, as confirmed by negotiation sources.
Specifically, the increase for 2025 will be 2.5%, which will be applied retroactively from last January 1, with which the arrears will be collected from the December payrolls. In January 2026, the salaries of these workers will rise another 1.5%, so adding both increases is fixed. However, a variable 0.5% is added linked to the 2026 CPI being equal to or greater than 1.5% of the fixed part for that year. In that case, this half point will foreseeably be paid within the first quarter of 2027 with retroactive effects from January 1, 2026 and will be deducted from the 2027 increase, which will be set for that year at 4.5% (5% if that half point is not brought forward to the previous year). In 2028, the remaining 2% will be raised.
All this will mean a cumulative increase of 11% in the four years, but taking into account the so-called drag effect (the increase in the same proportion of supplements, in addition to base salaries), the increase in practice will rise to 11.4%, according to union calculations. This will represent a gain of 2.9% in purchasing power in this period, the CSIF civil servants’ union estimates.
The consensus on salaries has come about thanks to the fact that the Government has agreed to introduce this variable half point linked to the CPI in 2026, although it will be paid retroactively in 2027. Otherwise, the unions refused to allow public employees to almost certainly lose purchasing power next year due to inflation that will likely exceed the 1.5% increase initially projected.
This Wednesday’s agreement represents the unlocking of a negotiation. In fact, the three centers began mobilizations at the return of the summer and even threatened a general strike in December if the Government did not sit down to talk about the salary increase for public sector workers. In the last three meetings held since last week, the salary issue, above all, has divided the unions. The UGT Public Services federation was the first to announce its support for the agreement, but the federations of the Public Area, Education and Health of CC OO and the CSIF civil servants union have not given their support until this Wednesday.
The pact that they will sign will, therefore, be multi-year for four years. In addition to salary improvements, it will include other points related to employment and other working conditions. The improvements include the commitment to shorten the deadlines for the selection processes so that no more than one year passes from the time a job offer is made until the official takes office (now it exceeds two years in most cases). And professional careers will be encouraged, expanding internal promotion and mobility. To this end, the classification of jobs will be adapted and specific and differentiated internal promotion processes will be carried out, promoting merit-based competitions, through the establishment of open and permanent competition, the unions report.
Reinforcements for customer service
Among the rest of the issues that will be included in this agreement is also the commitment to unblock the generalization of the 35-hour day and the regulation of teleworking in the General Administration of the State. Likewise, throughout 2026 the Executive will review and increase residence and island allowances, as well as compensation for reasons of service, in order to eliminate inequalities between different public employees. And the remuneration updates for Foreign Labor Personnel will also be addressed.
The Government is also committed to strengthening public service staff, adapting the remuneration of these jobs, which require greater demands. At this point, the signatories plan to develop measures and plans to reinforce occupational health protection, with psychological support measures and measures against aggression, among others. Work permits will also be updated and other improvements regarding conciliation will be incorporated.
The unions have also reported that this agreement promotes measures to guarantee equality and non-discrimination, as well as against sexual harassment, prevention and fight against gender violence. Specifically, CSIF has proposed the creation of prevention and support plans for victims of this type of violence.
Regarding retirement, they also plan to address some improvements. In this regard, it is pending that the Government facilitates the unlocking of partial retirements for the administration’s workforce, as well as extending this retirement modality to all public employees. However, to carry out this expansion it is necessary to approve it in the Public Service Law, whose processing is stuck in Parliament, where the possibilities of approving new regulations are slim. This bill also includes the extension of the working life of public employees up to 72 years of age on a voluntary basis.
In any case, the unions assure that the support they give to all these issues is not a blank check and they will be on top of their compliance, through the Monitoring Commission that will be established within a maximum period of 15 days from its signature, as well as other measures to ensure its complete execution.
