Average wage rise agreed in collective bargaining agreements at end of 2016 stands at 1.06%

According to the provisional data provided by the Statistics on Collective Bargaining Agreements, published on Monday, 9 January by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, the average working timetable agreed for all collective bargaining agreements as a whole stands at 1,758.2 hours per year per worker.

This stands at 1,713.5 hours for company agreements, while those at a higher level stand at 1,761 hours.

Out of the total of 2,956 agreements with known and recorded economic effects until December, 2,255 are company agreements that affect 438,000 workers. The remaining agreements - 701 in total - correspond to agreements at a higher level than company agreements, and include 7,030,000 workers. In total, these agreements affect a total of 7,470,000 workers.

Exceptions to agreements

In 2016, a total of 1,326 exceptions to collective bargaining agreements were filed with the different labour authorities, which affect 32,064 workers.

The majority of these exceptions - 90.6% - have been resolved by formalising an agreement between the company and the workers' representatives during the consultation period.

Most of the workers affected by the exceptions filed until the month of December 2016 - 61.8% - are from the services sector. As regards the size of the company, 34% of the workers affected are employed in companies with 250 workers or more, although most of the companies that filed exceptions - 85.6% - have a workforce of between 1 and 49 workers.

At 88.9%, most of the exceptions filed have indicated that they have decoupled their salaries from the amounts agreed in the collective bargaining agreement.

Out of a total of 1.326 exceptions, 62.2% stated that the only exception is decoupling the salary, while 12.7% indicated that, in addition to decoupling salaries, they have also decoupled their remuneration system.

In accumulated terms from March 2012 to December 2016, a total of 8,096 exceptions to collective bargaining agreements have been filed, affecting a total of 330,342 workers.