This Thursday, December 15, is the deadline for the central workers and the unions agree on the readjustment of the minimum wage for 2023 that has been discussed since last week at the policy agreement table labor and salary.
(See: In the absence of a figure to raise the minimum, other measures have already been agreed).
And although the two parties have not reached a joint figure, yesterday they advanced in the table in several complementary agreements to the negotiation of the minimum.
Firstly, an agreement was reached in relation to lto deindexation of goods and services which are tied to the minimum wage.
The Government has already identified 204 categories, mostly linked to the transport sector, with 42 elements; but also in sectors such as finance, labor, education, agriculture, housing and ICT, among others.
(See: Negotiation of the minimum one day from the first term to arrange continues).
As confirmed by the side of the businessmen the president of Fenalco, Jaime Alberto Cabal, eliminating these items would be done through decrees or bills. “Some require laws, what we have talked about is that they will surely get involved in the National Development Plan”, Indian.
A second commitment is related to energy rates and to take measures so that they do not continue to increase as they have been doing, there was also talk of reviewing usury rates, and drug prices.
“We will make a formal request to the Ministry of Finance to lower the usury rate, recalculating the formula that is applied today, so that card and consumer credits that are currently at 40% drop considerably for next year,” Cabal said.
(See: Final stretch for agreement of the minimum: dates to take into account).
From the side of the unions, Francisco Maltés, president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), expressed its appreciation to the Government for accepting the proposals presented by the Unitary National Command to maintain the purchasing power of Colombians.
“The proposals regarding the control of the price of the kilowatt of energy, the usury rate, the prices of medicines, which are overflowing, and the unleashing of various services from the minimum wage, which will reduce their price,” Maltese said.
For her part, the Minister of Labour, Gloria Inés Ramírez, confirmed that the negotiation table will continue today from 8:00 am and reiterated that the table has been working on the construction of a figure for the increase in the minimum wage in a unified manner.
“We are working to build the necessary measures that allow Colombian men and women to have not only the figure, but also the actions that guarantee the purchasing value of the minimum wage,” Ramirez said.
(See: Guilds ‘remain firm’: they will not present figures to negotiate the minimum).
The negotiation at this moment starts from 13.77%, if the last available inflation data is added plus the productivity figure (1.24%), and has a ceiling of 20% proposed by the businessmen.
BRIEFCASE
