The unions and unions have three days to agree on the increase in the minimum wage for 2023, and although lThe businessmen have not presented a figure to establish the negotiation floorthere are $62,300 pesos that today divide the possible scenarios that are on the table.
(See: Final stretch for the agreement of the minimum: dates to take into account).
This if one takes into account, on the one hand, that at least the salary readjustment would be 13.77%, when considering the data of November inflation (12.53%) plus the productivity figure (1.24%), which would imply that the minimum wage would increase from $1,000,000 in 2022 to $1,137,700.
On the other hand, there is the 20% increase that the workers unions requested since last week, which would push the salary increase up to $1,200,000.
(See: Unions ‘remain firm’: they will not present figures to negotiate the minimum).
The businessmen who participate of the space reiterated yesterday that they will not present a figure for the table, unlike the dynamics of other years, but that they want to work together with the Government and the unions to reach a single position at the negotiation table before the Thursday.
“For us, this is not a process of ‘push and pull’, it is a process of concertation, and for this reason we have assumed bilateral meetings with both the government and the labor unions to seek those common points, with the objective that hopefully on 15 December we can have an agreement”, said the president of the Society of Farmers of Colombia (SAC), Jorge Enrique Bedoya.
(See: Scenarios for employers and unions to agree to raise the minimum).
The president of Fenalco, Jaime Alberto Cabal, also said that they will continue talking with his counterpart, to, in an argued way, move towards where the minimum wage should go.
“Today we have a ceiling that they have set, of 20%, and a floor, which is inflation plus productivity, which is 13.77%. We are going to see what is best for the country to take care of the health of the economy, the generation of employment, but also to recognize the return of the purchasing power of wages in an inflationary framework like this year,” Cabal commented.
On the other hand, the unions reiterated their “political will to reach an agreement”, and they recognized that they would even be ready to go down your bid to reach an agreement.
“If we are at the table building a proposal, that implies that, of course, the initial positions can be modified,” said at the end of yesterday’s meeting Francisco Maltés, the president of the Unitary Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CUT).
From the Government it was confirmed that today there will be no negotiation table, but that bilateral tables will continue to be held between the parties, and on Wednesday the space for consultation will continue.
“We are working in bilateral meetings to continue building the figure for which we have time until next December 15, which will be the final day in which the country will know the decisions that we have been building,” said the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez.
(See: This is how it was for the country when the minimum rose more and less than inflation).
Laura Lucia Becerra Elejalde
Journalist Portfolio
