The Government and the unions UGT and CSIF reach an agreement for the salary increase of public officials and employees, who will see their payroll increased by 11% between now and 2028. The main obstacle in the negotiation was the accumulated 4% cap that the Executive had set for the year 2025, pending update, and 2026, and that the union majority did not accept considering that purchasing power would be lost. Finally, this issue, which had blocked talks since Monday, has been saved with a variable of 0.5%, which will be charged next year if inflation is equal to or greater than 1.5%.
The agreement, which will be signed this Thursday, already had the approval of UGT, which ratified the decision in its Federal Council last Friday, and after a meeting that lasted more than four hours, CSIF has joined. CCOO, for its part, has avoided making a statement and has asked for more time to make a decision. The Ministry of Public Function has indicated that this agreement “represents a great advance for public servants and also guarantees the purchasing power of public employees until 2028.”
In this way, the three and a half million public employees will see their payroll increased by 2.5%, retroactively, for 2025, and by 1.5% for 2026, which would add 0.5%, depending on what the CPI indicates next year and which, in any case, would be paid retroactively during the first quarter of 2027. For the moment, the inflation estimates planned for this year are between 2.7 and 2.9% and, according to the forecasts of the Bank of Spain, the next one would be around 2%.
For the next two years, the distribution of that remaining 6.5% of the 11%, which the Ministry of Public Function already offered last week as “immovable”, according to the unions, would be distributed by 4.5% for 2027 and 2% for 2028.
For the payment of the 2.5% increase for 2025, which will be paid retroactively, the Ministry had already committed this Monday, if the agreement was successful, to bring to the Council of Ministers a Royal Decree that would allow all of these amounts to be realized throughout this month of December.
The general secretary of UGT Public Services, Isabel Araque, defended at the end of the meeting that it is “a great agreement”, which “guarantees purchasing power” and allows “recovery of around 2.9” points. In addition, he has pointed out that “the replacement rate ends, public job offers will be carried out in a year and the administration is prepared to receive the new ones and promote those who are within.”
The unions that have committed to signing the agreement, UGT and CSIF, also estimate that the increase of that 11% accumulated in four years, and which represents a total of about 22,000 million euros, will reach around 11.5%, if salary shifts are taken into account.
From CSIF, they highlight that this “is the best possible agreement in the current political circumstances” and they also celebrate the “improvements in terms of permits and conciliation, internal promotion, merit-based competition and mobility” and in the streamlining of selection processes or the elimination of the replacement rate, as well as the adaptation of the classification of jobs to real functions and improvements in retirement, “as well as unblocking the 35 hours and the regulation of teleworking in the AGE.”
The salary increase is part of the negotiations for a new multi-year agreement, until 2028, which officially began on November 5. In recent weeks, the Ministry has addressed issues related to employment and working conditions with the unions, where there has been good agreement, while talks on remuneration began last Wednesday, with an offer of 10% over four years, including the 2025 financial year, pending update.
Since then, contacts have intensified. On Thursday the 20th, one day after the first offer, the Government raised the total amount to 11%, about 22,000 euros in total for the entire period. That effort satisfied UGT, whose Federal Council of Public Services approved that same afternoon. But the agreement stuck around the 4% accumulated between 2025 and 2026 that the Executive set as a limit, with 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively, something that CCOO and CSIF considered insufficient.
Source: www.eldiario.es
