Presidency minister Mariana Vieira da Silva said there is room to improve the proposal for salary increases for the civil service, admitting “minor adjustments” but emphasizing the budgetary effort already contained in the current document.
Mariana Vieira da Silva spoke to journalists during the presidency of the Council of Ministers, in Lisbon, at the end of a round of negotiations with the three trade union structures of the public administration with a seat in the negotiations, which found the executive’s proposal insufficient to faced with inflation.
Responding to criticism from the unions, the official started by saying that “a negotiation process could obviously be improved”, but emphasized that the proposal presented today includes a salary increase of 1,200 million euros, compared to 680 million euros of the previous one. year.
“It is a very important effort that is being made here to face a reality that is one of uncertainty, but which is being answered in a very significant way,” emphasized the minister, noting that the average salary increase in 2023 is 3 .6% will be, according to the government’s proposal.
“There may be minor adjustments, but it is a budgetary effort of 5.1%, it is very important,” emphasizes Mariana Vieira da Silva.
When asked how much a salary increase would cost in line with the expected inflation of 7.4% for all workers, the minister replied that “an increase of this magnitude would be unaffordable in the fiscal space available to the government”.
“We have tried to ensure that this is a fair and progressive response because while it is true that we are all affected by inflation, it is also true that inflation affects salaries differently and affects the lowest salaries more severely,” Mariana stressed. Vieira da Silva. .
The government has today proposed to the trade unions of the public administration a wage increase of between 8% and 2%, with a guarantee of at least about 52 euros.
This new update mechanism is multi-year and valid until 2026, although there may be some revisions each year depending on the economic and financial realities of the country, the minister admitted to Lusa.
However, Mariana Vieira da Silva guaranteed that no civil servant would receive a raise of less than 208 euros in four years.
In addition to the wage increase proposal, the government is also proposing to the unions the revision of the Single Pay Table.
In this context, the government’s proposal for the next four years provides for a valuation of the careers of senior technician and technical assistant and a salary differentiation in the careers of operational assistants, who will have different pay values during their career 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
