Salary improvements in the public sector would be negotiated from 2022

Steps are felt. Yesterday afternoon, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), confirmed that collective bargaining in the public sector will be debated this Tuesday in the plenary session of the Congress, as part of the prediction of the Public Budget Law for fiscal year 2022 approved by the Budget Commission.

The Republic was able to know first-hand that Minister Pedro Francke delegated the Vice Minister of Finance, Gustavo Guerra García, to explain to the State Workers Front (FTEP) that article 6 of the Public Budget project will be exempted -which prohibits all types of salary improvement and benefits for state employees-, since Law 31188 is currently in force (Law of Collective Bargaining in the State Sector).

Edward Flores, coordinator of the FTEP, explains that Garcia War pledged to respect the state collective bargaining law given that in previous years, during the approval of the Public Budget Law, there was no law that guarantees that the economic conditions of the workforce are improved.

:

“In compliance with Law 31188, this law will be exempted from Article 6 (of the budget project), so that all the specifications through the national, regional and local government can negotiate, within the framework of this law, remuneration conditions respecting the budget framework. There will always be this respect. We feel that the horizon is changing ”, greets Flores.

For its part, Jose Sandoval, a spokesman for the FTEP, adds that both Francke and Guerra García recognized that there is a consensus with all the banks so that it can be negotiated collectively.

A single t-shirt

The approval of the substitute text for the PL of the Public Budget 2022 was given unanimously in the Budget Committee of Congress, and, according to the union representatives consulted and voices of that working group, during the weekend they will finish refine the details of the prediction.

:

Therefore, and considering that the votes cast correspond to parliamentarians of all sides, creeds and colors, It would be expected that the vote to give the green light to state collective bargaining in the Plenary – to be held this Tuesday, November 23 and Wednesday, November 24 – will be majority.

Historic decision

The former Deputy Minister of Employment of the MTPE Fernando Cuadros considered as a historical fact that the Government – a product of social dialogue with the labor force involved – gives the green light to collective bargaining after several decades of waiting. “This rule would be lifted so that salary improvements can be negotiated from 2022, and they would be applied in 2023,” he added.

Likewise, he emphasized that the increases that are negotiated will not be arbitrary, but will be limited to the availability of resources and the order of their management.

:

“This lifting (of the prohibition to negotiation) will make all public workers, CAS, 728, 276, special services and civil service, to negotiate their salary improvements through their union,” he declared.

“Tax reform to meet more orders”

Pedro Francke argued before the Budget Commission that they will prioritize the budgetary attention of those projects presented by the congressmen who have a technical file already prepared.

“We know that resources are limited and we will not be able to consider all that we want and share. We insist that the best policy, in our opinion, is to proceed with a tax reform that may allow the Government to have a higher level of tax revenue (…) and these should be expressed as expenses in the supplementary credit bill, that is to say, an additional supported budget that will be able to consider a greater number of projects proposed by the congressmen ”, said Francke Ballvé.

:

The word

Pedro Francke, Minister of Economy and Finance

“There is a need to recognize the right to collective bargaining for public sector workers (…). We have signed as a sign of conformity (except for the prohibition of article 6) ”.