The determination of increase the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) by 4%, going from the current 1,080 euros to 1,123 euros, the Canarian employers did not like it. The increase in this figure, which would benefit 120,000 island workers, is above the 3% that the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) proposed at the national level. Furthermore, the Government refuses to listen to two of the requests that the businessmen had made: that the agricultural sector be excluded from the increase – given the situation of suffocation it suffers due to rising costs – and that the increase be applied in the same way to public contracts.
For Pedro Alfonso, president of CEOE Tenerife, the way in which the increase is proposed causes “disappointment”, since it “ignores” the Canarian countryside: “We are talking about a sector that was already very affected, the one that was most affected of all. We do not believe that he can assume another salary increase,” he points out.. Island farmers have suffered a 47% increase in costs in recent years, recalls José Cristóbal García, vice president of the Canary Islands Confederation of Entrepreneurs.
Likewise, the approach made by the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, – who warned the employers that, if they do not join the agreement, the rate of increase in the SMI could be higher – means for Alfonso and García « “blackmail.” “It certified us that social dialogue in Spain is in a more than precarious situation”criticized Alfonso.
