Debate on absenteeism classified as a “trap” to block collective agreements and prevent salary increases.
Away from the Portuguese context of labor law, there is also a dispute between bosses e unions in Spain. They are the salaries do future that are at stake.
There is a structural divergence regarding the distribution of corporate profits. Unions demand a redistribution that allows workers to regain their purchasing power; employers are more cautious and complain about O work absenteeism (a worker is away from the workplace during his/her working hours, with or without justification).
This Tuesday there was an assembly of the Confederation of Workers’ Organizations (CCOO), in Vigo. Secretary Javier Pacheco said that companies take this absenteeism argument to transform it into a “trap” to block collective agreements and to prevent wage increases.
Many collective negotiations in Spain are at a standstill because, he argues, employers are “using the absenteeism trap to camouflage yours refusal in distributing profits”, quotes the .
For the union, this current conflict is a economic paradox: there are recent records in companies, productivity and the Spanish economy itself – but the salaries of 11 million workers remain stagnant. And, also in Spain, purchasing power falls, housing costs rise.
Employers “insist on reducing working hours and wages.” Therefore, the union will use “all its resources to promote labor unrest.”
CCOO has some concrete economic proposals to protect families: direct aid of 300 euros for the most vulnerable groups, return of free public transport, or reactivation of rent control.
The union also defends the intervention nos prices, especially in the wake of recent historic war-related surges in Iran.
“We cannot repeat the situation experienced during the war in Ukraine, when public tax exemptions ended up financing record profit margins for refineries and oil oligarchs”, recalled Javier Pacheco.
