The social agents end the pension meeting without an agreement, but the CCOO and UGT see it as very close

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The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, UGT, CCOO and the CEOE have concluded the meeting for the second leg of the pension reform without an agreement, although the unions see “significant progress” and leave open the possibility that it will be closed coming soon.

The general deputy secretary of Union Policy of the UGT, Fernando Luján, has been optimistic and sees the pact “quite close”, in the absence of “small fringes” and “matters that are getting closer”, as he told the media after the meeting .

For his part, the CCOO Confederal Secretary for Social Security and Complementary Social Security, Carlos Bravo, has indicated that “significant progress has been made, but not on all issues.”

Bravo has also advanced that the Ministry will send a new text tomorrow and hopes to “resolve in the next few hours” the issues that distance them.

From the CEOE, the director of Labor Relations, Rosa Santos, has stressed that the businessmen see it as “impossible” to reach an agreement, although they will continue to make contributions until “the last text”.

REVENUE SHARE, NEARLY COMPLETED

Luján has informed after the meeting that the part of income, which will come from the increase in the contribution bases, the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), and the solidarity quota has been “almost finished in the fundamental part”.

The social agents have yet to “qualify the scope of the solidarity quota”, as the general deputy secretary of Union Policy of the UGT has said.

“We are not entirely clear how many groups are going to be integrated into this quota, it seems that all those that are listed in the General Regime but we are not clear about the rest,” added Luján.

Bravo has also admitted that in the meeting on Monday the extension of the additional solidarity contribution has not been definitively resolved and he hopes that it can be completed tomorrow.

The CCOO has asked the Government to “expressly disappear” from the wording that the General State Budget Law can limit the solidarity quota each year and the Executive “has agreed to withdraw that provision.”

The proposal presented this Monday by the Government proposes the creation of a “solidarity quota” on the part of the salary that is currently not quoted for exceeding the maximum contribution limit, which will be 1% in 2025 and will increase at a rate of 0 .25 points per year until reaching 6% in 2045 (5% by the company and 1% by the worker).

Regarding the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), the Social Security draft studied this Monday proposed doubling the overprice associated with the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI).

This, which is currently 0.6%, will rise to 1.2% in 2029, at a rate of one tenth per year, with the company taking over 1% and the worker taking over 0.2%. The draft establishes that from the year 2030 to 2050 this same percentage of 1.2% will be maintained, with equal distribution between employer and worker.

This overquoting is of a finalist nature and its objective is to fatten the Social Security Reserve Fund, known as the ‘pension piggy bank’. The Government specifies in the draft that this surcharge may not be subject to any bonus, reduction, exemption or deduction, nor is it subject to reduction by the application of corrective coefficients.

The other measure to raise income is the uncapping of the maximum bases, which will rise between 2024 and 2050 the annual CPI plus a fixed amount of 1.2 percentage points. This will imply a cumulative increase of 38% until 2050.

Luján has indicated that both the increase in the maximum bases and the MEI have been “closed” this Monday.

Bravo has also stressed that the problems generated by the Government’s wording on the application of the MEI have been “cleared up” and added that the Government has responded “favourably”.

Santos, from the CEOE, has regretted that the Government does not want to “enter into other approaches” to improve collection and income, and has rejected those proposed by Social Security since with the rise in contributions “it puts pressure on wages “, with a drop in these, and, at the same time, “it puts pressure on companies, with higher labor costs”.

INTEGRATION OF GAPS AND MINIMUM PENSIONS

CCOO and UGT also see progress in other of their claims, “but not significant”, so they will wait for the next document from the Executive to close it.

Bravo has insisted that the specification of minimum pensions is “very important” for the CCOO and has described as “insufficient” the approach of the Ministry directed by José Luis Escrivá, since “it does not cover all the minimum pensions”.

The CCOO has transferred to the Government that a “floor” must be “clear” that guarantees in the future all the minimum pensions in the country in relation to the Relative Poverty Index, at least 60% of that index or of the median income, in the case of contributory For non-contributory companies, it has requested 75%.

Bravo has advanced that the Government has shown itself willing to “incorporate that land”. “The evolution of minimum pensions will not be able to go behind the increase in median income in the country”, he has indicated.

From the UGT, Luján has recognized that 60% of the median income of a two-person household in minimum pensions “takes us away from poverty”, just like 75% of the median income of a one-person household for pensions non-contributory.

The Government text proposes establishing a convergence path for minimum contributory pensions to ensure that they reach 60% of median income, taking as a reference the evolution of the minimum pension with a dependent spouse, which would reach 60% between 2024 and 2027 of the median income corresponding to a household of two adults.

Specifically, the draft establishes that from 2027 the minimum contributory retirement pension for a holder over 65 years of age and with absolute permanent disability with a dependent spouse, once revalued with the interannual average CPI for the twelve months prior to December previous year, may not be less than 60% of the equivalent median income corresponding to a household made up of two adults.

To determine said median income, the median income corresponding to a single-person household will be multiplied by 1.5 in the terms specified for Spain in the latest data available from the Living Conditions Survey of the National Statistics Institute, updated up to the corresponding year. according to the average interannual growth of that income in the last eight years.

In the case of non-contributory pensions, these will grow until they converge in 2027 with 75% of the poverty threshold calculated for a single-person household, according to the Government’s draft.

“LIVE” DEBATE ON LAGOON INTEGRATION

Negotiations are still open regarding the integration of loopholes. The social agents have had this Monday a “live debate on the matter, but without sufficient resolution or specificity”, as Bravo has pointed out.

This is one of the issues that he hopes to find results in the next text, because it is one of those that “still distance” the parties.

Luján has indicated that there has also been talk at this table about the coverage of gaps for self-employed people, with up to six months, and the fixed-discontinuous ones.

The CCOO and UGT negotiators have announced that they will receive another text from the Ministry tomorrow, although the date for a new meeting has not been set.

However, Luján believes that “an agreement could be reached tomorrow, when they send the final text.” In addition, he has advanced that the UGT has convened its management bodies on Wednesday to discuss the agreement.