Doubts SMEs workers salary | Do I have to apply the salary increase agreed by employers and unions to my workers?

2023-05-13 21:24:33

• “The Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) is not mandatory”

In a particularly difficult economic situation due to rising prices, SMEs and the self-employed are the first to review their accounts, put their businesses in order and adjust to economic uncertainty. In order for it to function as a meeting point and support for this key economic segment, Celia Ferrero, executive vice president of the Self Employed Association (ATA), answers once a month to any of the emails sent and offers answers to guide entrepreneurs in professional matters. All inquiries should be made with name, surname and ID.

Do I have to apply the salary increase agreed by employers and unions to my workers?

The Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) it is not mandatoryRather, it establishes a series of recommendations that will serve as a guide for the 4,509 collective bargaining tables in different areas -sectoral, company, etc.- to establish an agreement.

So, on the one hand, it depends on your activity and the agreement that applies to you, and on the other, the moment in which said agreement is from the point of view of its validity. Thus, if this has recently been renewed, it is the rules of said agreement that must be applied in terms of the salary increase, salary tables and other conditions that are set. If this is not the case, and the agreement that applies to you is going to be the subject of negotiation in the coming months, the AENC recommendations will surely be reflected in the same.

Now, and that is one of the great values ​​of the AENC, everything that is agreed can and should be adapted to the sector or company depending on their own characteristics and circumstances, since the agreements may or may not include what is recommended or improve it based on them.

Once the agreement is signed, it is applied as a general rule to regulate labor relations in the sector, company or territory. However, there are also drop-off clauses of the same, when a company or a business cannot assume these conditions as long as it is duly justified.

It is also important to understand what the salary increase procedure is that establishes this fifth agreement. The recommended increase is 4% this year, 3% in 2024 and another 3% in 2025, which is the evolution of expected inflation. If these percentages are exceeded, the rise will be increased in the same proportion, but only up to 1% more. In other words, if inflation closes this year at 4.5%, the salary increase to be applied would be 4.5%, and if inflation closed at 5.3%, it can only be increased up to 5%. All this will be adapted to each sector or company based on its growth, its results and even the incidence in each case of the increase in the SMI. It is also relevant that retroactive effects have not been established, nor has the year 2022 been contemplated, when average inflation was 8.4%.

But the salary increase is not the only chapter of the AENC, which has 16, but also contemplates other aspects as relevant as the possibility of extending the term of the contract by agreement due to production circumstances, if so agreed by the parties, the development of formulas flexible retirement, the promotion of employment pension plans in companies and sectors, a development of agreements with the mutuals aimed at carrying out diagnostic tests and therapeutic and rehabilitative treatments in processes of temporary disability due to common contingencies of traumatological origin to combat absenteeism and a long list of recommendations that seek a better understanding between employers and employees.

I reiterate, it is not a law, but it lays the foundations for the stability of labor relations for the next three years and non-conflict, something that all actors and all citizens must congratulate ourselves on.

I have turned 65 and I only worked as a freelancer for a few years. Am I entitled to something?

R. To access contributory retirement in 2023, you must either be 65 years old, which you are, and have contributed a minimum of 37 years in any of the SS schemes or by adding the time contributed in both, as long as the quote has not been simultaneous, or be 66 years and four months old and have contributed for a minimum of 15 years.

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If you do not meet any of these criteria, you can opt for non-contributory retirement, although certain criteria must be met. The first and most important, lack of sufficient income: by 2023 the limit is that this income does not reach 6,784.54 euros, but it is reduced depending on the income of the family unit. The second is to have reached the legal retirement age. And the third, having resided in Spanish territory for at least 10 years.

Now, given the wording of your questionI advise you to approach the Social Security Treasury since in the case of women facing the pension there is on the one hand coverage of gaps, which may -perhaps and depending on your years of contribution- allow you to access the contributory pension, as well as the gender gap supplement that will increase the amount of the benefit.