The over three million public employees in Spain have not yet received the 2% salary increase for 2024 that the Government agreed upon with the unions CC OO and UGT in the Framework Agreement 2022-2024. Typically, salary increases for public sector workers are included in the General State Budgets, but this year there have been no new public accounts, and the ones from 2023 have been extended. This forced the Government to include the salary increase in another regulation through an amendment in a so-called anti-crisis decree, which is currently stuck in the process of becoming law in the Congress of Deputies. However, the Government hopes that it will be reactivated starting next week, according to parliamentary sources.
The decree contains economic measures to address conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the effects of drought, but also includes the salary increase for public employees. The process of this urgent regulation in the lower house closed the deadline for submitting amendments on 6th March, but the calls for the Subcommittee and the Committee, where these amendments should be discussed, do not even have a date. As a result, five months have passed and public employees have not seen the salary increase reflected in their paychecks. When this increase is eventually paid, it will be retroactive from January 1st of this year.
The next 2% salary increase may not be the last for this year, as according to the aforementioned framework agreement, public employees will receive an additional increase of 0.5% linked to inflation. The commitment between the Government and the unions CC OO and UGT is to raise the salaries by this half a point “if the sum of the variation of the CPI for 2022, 2023, and 2024 exceeds the cumulative fixed salary increase of those years.” This means that if the inflation accumulated over these three years exceeds 8%, this additional increase would also take effect from January 1st, 2024.
The total salary increase for public employees in the period 2022-2024 will exceed 8%, potentially reaching 9.5% in those years if the inflation revision clause at the end of this year is also met. In real terms, government officials have explained that the revaluation could be up to 9.8%, since salary increases are consolidatable into the salaries. However, this salary agreement ends in 2024 and negotiators from the public sector federations of CC OO and UGT are already meeting with officials from Public Administration to renew the agreement.
Given the need to extend the General State Budgets for 2023, the approval of this regulation is required to implement the salary increase for public sector employees outlined in the Agreement. Talks are already underway to renew the agreement, with future salary increases expected to be “reasonable” and in line with economic conditions and deficit objectives. The potential future salary increases for public employees have not been disclosed yet, but they are expected to be compatible with inflation and economic growth.
