State employees risk a salary loss of between 50 and 284 euros per month in 2023, if the government continues to update salaries at around 2%, instead of 7.4%, this year’s estimated inflation. In the interview with CNN the day before yesterday, the Prime Minister, António Costa, was urging to guarantee that civil servants are “certainly not increased by 7.4%”, in line with inflation.
Contrary to the expectations of union organizations, who defend an update that is never lower than inflation, to avoid a loss of purchasing power, António Costa revealed in the same interview that “the measure is to try to reach 2% as quickly as possible” inflation, the European target. “It’s a reference [para os aumentos dos salários]but it won’t be the only data to consider.”
“The benchmark is to go to 2% as soon as possible” [de inflação]. “It’s a reference [para os aumentos dos salários]but it will not be the only data to be taken into account,” Prime Minister António Costa said.
Based on DN/Dinheiro Vivo’s calculations from the average gross monthly salary of civil servants, which appears in the latest bulletin of the Directorate General of Public Administration and Employment (DGAEP), the salary loss in 2023 due to a 2% increase in instead of 7.4%, can vary on average between 50 euros for a salary of 733 euros for an operational employee and 284 euros per month for a salary of 5294 euros for a magistrate.
So if a technical assistant, with a salary of 733 euros, were to be increased by 7.4%, he would receive an additional 54 euros from January 2023, which equates to a salary of 787 euros. If a 2% update is applied, the increase is only 3.6 euros, which translates into a salary of 736.6 euros. That is, you get 50 euros less per month.
At the top of the salary table are the magistrates who have an average salary of 5264 euros. In this case, a 7.4% upgrade would yield a salary of 5653 euros, plus 389 euros at the end of the month. With an increase of 2%, the increase is much lower, from 105 euros to 5369 euros, resulting in a loss of 284 euros per month.
According to the statistics published by the DGAEP in August, “the average monthly basic wage of full-time employees in the government sector was EUR 1,559 in April 2022.” For this income level, the discount becomes 84 euros per month, if the salary update is 2% and not 7.4%. In the first situation, the employee receives 1590, so 31 euros extra. In the second case, the salary is 1674 euros, an increase of 115 euros.
The three civil servant unions contacted by DN/DV – Public Administration Union Front (Fesap), Civil Service Union Federation (Common Front) and State Technical Staff Union (STE) – have already raised the red card and threaten a national strike if the government is not open to negotiations for a salary increase of more than 2%.
According to the secretary-general of the Frente Comum, Sebastião Santana, “Antonio Costa’s stance was reckless from a democratic and negotiation point of view”, as he chose to anticipate negotiations with the unions that should precede the submission of the proposal. on October 10. Santana understands that “there is room in the budget for higher increases”.
The proposal, which the Common Front is expected to adopt on September 29, aims at “a 10% increase for all employees, with a guarantee of at least 100 euros, to recover the salary loss that reached 15.4% in January compared to with 2009,” said the organization’s leader regarding CGTP. “If the government proves intransigent, the Common Front will not rule out any form of struggle, including a national strike,” he warned.
Along the same lines, Fesap Secretary General José Abraão says that “the proposal to update 2% is incomprehensible, unacceptable and a lack of respect for collective bargaining”. The leader of this federation, which influences UGT, recalls that this year “wages have only increased by 0.9% and not by 1.3%, which was the inflation calculated for the year 2021”. Without defending a concrete value for the increase, Abraão believes that “the government should present a proposal that, between the salary update, the increase in living allowances and career development, prevents the loss of workers’ purchasing power” . Otherwise, it also allows for a national strike.
More optimistically, the STE understands that “if the prime minister stated 2%, that would be the minimum of the increase, and the rest could be negotiated,” said union leader Helena Rodrigues. “The STE will propose increases between 7% and 8%, in terms of collective bargaining,” the leader said, adding that the union has the flexibility to negotiate the values of the increases, also taking into account “the evaluation system of the public administration (SIADAP), the meal allowance which is 4.77 euros per day and which the union understands should increase to 7 euros”. If the Executive proves inflexible, the STE threatens strikes, protests and “a joint national strike”.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
