In the coming weeks in Ecuador Basic salary that will rule in 2024, in the way that workers and employers will start meetings this week to reach an agreement, something similar will happen in Colombia.

The first session of the National Council for Work and Wages (CNTS) of Ecuador is scheduled to take place on Thursday, November 9, while on November 28, the Concerned Committee is scheduled to meet in Colombia to negotiate the new salary. The current salary in Ecuador is $450, and in Colombia $290.80 at the current exchange rate.

In 2022, in Ecuador, workers and employers did not reach an agreement on establishing a single basic wage (SBU), so The government was in charge of defining it, and from 425 dollars it went to 450 dollarsthe increase was $25, and the same value was applied from 2021 to 2022, since one of the offers of President Guillermo Lasso during the election campaign was to raise the salary from $400 to $500, or an increase of $25 each year.

On November 9, members of the National Council for Work and Wages will meet to discuss the basic salary for 2024.

For the salary negotiations for 2024, the position of the workers is to equate to a vital basket of $550, on the side of the employers, technical positions prevail, even the Ecuadorian Business Committee asked to leave the SBU issue in the “hands” of the government of the newly elected president Daniel Noboa if there is no agreement between the parties. Meanwhile, the current government indicated in October that if there is no consensus between workers and employers, the wage for 2024 will be set at $475.

Labor law expert Vanessa Velásquez indicated that in these last two SBUs is correcting what was done “It is about the forced fulfillment of a pre-election offer” and that’s worrisome, because if we take into account the inflation rate that’s 2 percent and the planned increase of $25, we’re talking about double the percentage that should happen. “The last time a technical study was carried out was ministerial agreement 185 of 2020, that ministerial agreement established the difference in wages, etc.,” he said.

Last year, the minimum wage in Colombia was set after an agreement between workers, employers and the government, the increase was 16%, from 1,000,000 Colombian pesos ($250.69 at the current exchange rate) to 1,160,000 Colombian pesos ($290.80 at current exchange rate). exchange rate).

In order to define the new salary for 2024, the Minister of Labor, Gloria Ramírez, indicated that although the date for the installation of the Concert Board is set for November 28, they will start “earlier to carry out preliminary studies with the consultation table.” . “There we will have the opportunity to listen to the proposals of businessmen, their analyses, but also those of the workers, we will bring the academy. Of course, the Government will also carry out its analysis and from there we hope to agree on a minimum wage that will allow us to maintain the purchasing power that has been a very good bet this year,” said Ramírez, according to Infobae.

Velásquez pointed out that according to statistics, Ecuador ranks fourth in the country with one of the highest minimum wages, after Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay. “This should be immediately linked to the possibility of generating employment, with a higher salary, certain positions become more expensive, for example, domestic help, because a middle-class family will no longer be able to afford the basic salary of a domestic helper. ” of $475,” he explained.

Workers: The outgoing government has offered a $25 increase and must deliver

The lawyer pointed out that it must be taken into account that in Ecuador there are important salary components, such as the thirteenth and fourteenth salary, reserve funds, which if there is an effect of competition with the world, these are benefits that “do not exist in all countries.” “.

As an example, he stated that in Costa Rica there is a thirteenth salary, but there is no fourteenth salary, nor the retirement of the employer, which are components that ultimately make working in Ecuador much more expensive.

“The question is: does the wage increase enable more employment or not? That is the important thing, and point two, of course the basic basket is around $600 and that is why the unions in the country are asking for an increase up to $550; “The National Wage Council will not be able to reach an agreement and therefore it will have to be fixed on the salary offered in the campaign and not on the technical standard,” he said.

International panorama

While these meetings are being prepared in Ecuador and Colombia to define the minimum wage, there is a labor conflict on the other side of the world. Almost a fortnight after textile workers began protests demanding higher wages, in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, around 600 factories stopped working and they continued them on weekends. But clashes continued in the industrial town of Ashulia, west of Dhaka, on Saturday, November 4, when around 10,000 workers tried to prevent their colleagues from returning to work, according to AFP.

Kalpona Akter, president of the Federation of Workers in the Garment Industry and Industry of Bangladesh, said AFP that among the closed factories are “many of the largest factories in the country, which produce clothes for almost all major Western brands” and mentioned Gap, Walmart, H&M, Zara, Bestseller, Levi’s, Marks and Spencer, Primark and Aldi.

Workers during a protest demanding an increase in their wages, Bangladesh. Photo: AFP

The workers are demanding almost a tripling of the monthly minimum wage, from 8,300 taka ($74) to 23,000 taka ($205), but the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association is proposing only a 25% increase, according to AFP.

Bangladesh last revised textile workers wages in 2018, when he established a minimum wage of 8,000 taka ($72) per month. Textiles represented nearly 85% of the country’s total exports of $55 billion in the last fiscal year, according to EFE.

Bangladesh is the world’s second largest exporter of clothing, behind China, and has about 3,500 factories employing four million workers, mostly women.

For Velásquez, what is happening in Bangladesh “is an exploitation in which workers’ rights have not had the achievements that historically have been the ones defended here by trade union movements”, however – he said – it must be taken into account that they have precisely the population who mostly have jobs because of low wages, which doesn’t mean it’s true.

“We must find a balance, we cannot fall into exploitation, nor into the extreme we have become in Ecuador of generating wage increases without technical analysis as should happen,” he assured.