The Minister of the Presidency admitted on Monday that a transversal increase in salaries of 7.4% in the public service would be “unaffordable” in the budgetary space available to the Executive.
Speaking to journalists, Mariana Vieira da Silva explained that the Government must take “into account that the the budget space must guarantee salary updatingthe career review and also the maintenance of progressions and promotions, which is what guarantees public servants a career review”.
The official also stressed that “the Government has proposed to the unions a multi-year mechanism for salaries and careers that means an increase in the salary mass of the public function, excluding new income of 5.1%”, an amount that seeks to make a “contribution significant” to a “fundamental objective” of the executive: the “valuation of the weight of wages in the whole of national wealth”. The total cost is 1,200 million.
In this way, the The Government has proposed an increase in the salaries of civil servants that ranges from 8% for the lowest salaries to 2% for those who exceed 2,600 euros per month.. Thus, for example, all salaries up to 1,000 euros will have an increase of “at least 5.5%”. At stake is “one in three public administration workers.” According to Mariana Vieira da Silva, “for salaries of 1,500 euros, the increases are always above 3.5%. And that means practically 60% of public officials.”
The Minister of the Presidency admitted that she considered that the proposal to increase salaries in the public service presented to the unions “provides guarantees of justice by protecting lower salaries in a period of inflation” and guarantees predictability.
In addition to the salary update proposal, the Government also presented to the unions the “beginning of the revision of the single remuneration table”, seeking to “ensure that the careers that had been compressed in recent years can have a normal development” and establishing “between the different careers an interval that gives a sense of career progression to all public servants”.
Government proposes salary increases in the public service between 2% and 8%. FESAP considers the proposal “insufficient”, but with “valuable aspects”
Questioned by journalists after meetings with the SET, FESAP and the Common Front about the discontent of the unions, Mariana Vieira da Silva stressed that the negotiation process “naturally has room for improvement” and that there may be “small bumps”, but preferred to highlight that the set of measures will have a budgetary impact of 1,200 million euros in 2023.
A very important effort” by the Government, which guarantees that “the average increase for 2023 is 3.6” and that “it protects the lowest wages more”.
Regarding the negotiation of the food subsidy, which the union structures intend to see increased, Mariana Vieira da Silva said that the Government will work “until Friday” to achieve “a rapprochement.”
Questioned by the Observer about the minimum wage proposal in the public service that sets the tone for the national minimum wage proposal in 2023, Mariana Vieira da Silva said that the expected evolution for “public administration” is “in line” with what said by the Government at the headquarters of Social Concentration.
In this way, the executive intends to guarantee that the “career base of the public administration guarantees purchasing power or some increase in purchasing power”, in a response that it considers “fair and progressive”. In addition, the Minister of the Presidency has highlighted that the Executive “has sought to face this inflationary moment by responding to the problem in different directions”, giving as an example measures aimed at energy prices, public transport or rents. “All these measures, together with the salary increases for the public function, are government commitments to face inflation,” the minister stressed.
The Government proposed this Monday to the unions of the public administration salary increases of between 2% and 8%, with a guarantee of a minimum of about 52 euros per year until 2026. The minimum annual increase for the public function will be equivalent to a change level remuneration (about 52 euros).
OE2023. The Government proposes a minimum increase of 52 euros per year until 2026 in the public service
Source: Observadora
