ELA says pension deal will mean more cuts

ELA has rejected the pension agreement signed by the Government of Spain and the CC unions. OO. and UGT because it will bring more cuts and the 0.6% rise in social security contributions “will not be enough” to modify the “structural” situation of the public system or guarantee its future.

The head of the union’s Studies Office, Mikel Noval, has warned that the agreement reached between the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, with CC. OO. and UGT and without the presence of the employer, to regulate the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) to replace the Sustainability Factor, “will bring a new cut in pensions.”

According to Noval, the agreement “expressly” incorporates the Spanish Government’s commitment to propose measures to “reduce the percentage of pension spending in terms of GDP” as of 2033. “In other words, the Government is committed to cutting pensions” , Noval has assured.

What’s more, has criticized that a new pension reform “has already been announced” for 2022, in which “various cuts” have been committed to Brussels, such as reducing the amount of the new pensions that involves extending the number of years taken into account to calculate the pension to more than 25.

In that direction, from ELA they have summoned the political parties, with special mention to EH Bildu and Elkarrekin Podemos, to “not endorse with their votes any of these measures” and commit to repeal the pension reforms of 2011 and 2013, establish a minimum pension of 1080 euros per month and reject the cuts in early retirement.

The union has claimed “break with the logic “that governs the Toledo Pact and the Social Dialogue accompanying it, replace it with a substantial improvement in public pensions, and finance the system significantly also with taxes, not just contributions.