The Federation of Public Administration Trade Unions (Fesap) ruled Monday that the government’s proposal to increase the number of civil servants is insufficient to prevent a loss of purchasing power, but underlined that there are “valuable” aspects to it.
The Secretary General of Fesap, José Abraão, spoke to journalists after meeting the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, and the Secretary of State for Public Administration, Inês Ramires, where the governors presented a proposal for a minimum wage increase of about 52 euros in 2023, which will be repeated in the coming years, until 2026.
“The proposal is insufficient because it will create the conditions for the following years, in particular 2023, to be subject to a loss of purchasing power by workers, but it also has some valuable aspects related to technical assistants, which represent an increase of around 104 euros. already in 2023 and to the operational assistants who will receive an increase of around 60 euros”said Abraham.
Fesap also appreciated the fact that the proposal has a multi-year proposal, which will allow some predictability for public administration employees over the next four years, but stressed that it is a wait and see because “even the washing of the baskets is the harvest,” stressed. the trade unionist.
José Abraão also urged to increase the subsidy and meal to six euros, indicating that the minister has “took note” of this Fesap claim and will discuss it at the next meeting, scheduled for Friday.
According to the trade unionist, the government official also showed openness to replace the lost points in the career performance evaluation absorbed by the evolution of the minimum wage.
The Fesap leader also indicated that it is necessary to know if there are any changes coming at the level of the IRS to ensure that these salary increases are not absorbed by the tax burden, as happened this year with the valuation of senior technicians.
The government this Monday proposed to the public administration unions a wage increase of between 8% and 2%, with a guarantee of at least about 52 euros a year until 2026, said the minister of the presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva.
The minimum annual increase for the civil service corresponds to a change in the salary level (about 52 euros), ranging between 8% for the lowest pay in the table, which is 705 euros, and 2% for income from 2,570.82 euros.
“This means that this salary update mechanism will increase government salaries by an average of 3.6% over the next year”the minister emphasized in statements to Lusa.
This new update mechanism is multi-year, valid until 2026, which according to Mariana Vieira da Silva “gives some predictability to the salary increases over the four years” of the legislature, although there may be some revisions every year, depending on economic realities and the financial situation. situation of the country, he admitted.
However, Mariana Vieira da Silva guaranteed that no civil servant would receive a raise of less than 208 euros in four years.
The minister also stressed that with the 8% increase, the basic pay of the public administration (which currently corresponds to the national minimum wage of EUR 705) will increase to EUR 761.58 next year, “to ensure that there is no loss of the salary for these officials because of the value of inflation”, which the government estimates at 7.4% for 2022.
The 8% increase will cover 123,607 officials, according to the executive’s accounts.
The government’s proposal also provides for a valuation of senior technician and technical assistant careers for the next four years and a salary differentiation in the careers of operational assistants, who will have different pay values throughout their careers depending on seniority.
In 2022, most of the 740 thousand civil servants had a 0.9% pay increase, in line with inflation in 2021, excluding deflation.
Source: DN
