Salary board to start fresh minimum wage negotiations

In recent years, the organization that sets the minimum wage has served mainly to define the value of social welfare programs

Labor minister Kelly Olmos. Credit: Kelly Olmos Twitter

The Salary Board will meet again next week to adjust the minimum wage based on the criteria established by Economy Minister Sergio Massa. The organization, which includes workers’ organizations, business chambers and the government, will resume activity on Thursday, July 13 to adjust the minimum wage, currently at AR$87,987 (US$326 at the official rate, US$182 at the MEP rate). The main function of the minimum wage is to update social welfare programs that are calculated as half of the minimum wage. As with the previous debate in March, the executive board hopes to reach a new short-term agreement, probably covering the next three months.

The resolution published on Tuesday by Labor Minister Raquel “Kelly” Olmos, president of the Salary, Productivity and Minimum Wage Council, asked its 32 members to hold a virtual meeting to discuss a new floor for income and unemployment benefits. Half its members are from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT, by its Spanish initials) and the two branches of the Argentine Workers’ Central (CTA). The rest represent employers.

The call to talks was included in the council’s last agreement, but workers’ centrals have not yet defined their conditions to attend the meeting. Sources from the CGT, which represents a majority of unions, said they would wait for a signal from Massa to make their demand. This has been the dynamic in recent years, since the minimum wage ceased to function as a concrete reference for the formal private sector and became mainly a measure for social welfare plans, serving only secondarily as an orientation for unregistered work contracts.

The results of the last negotiations with Massa at the helm of the Economy Ministry, along with the restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund agreement, make it unlikely that results will differ significantly from previous agreements. These have been limited to accompanying inflation with minimum wage rises in quotas. March’s salary board meeting ended with a majority vote from members to increase the minimum wage by 26.6% in three quotas. The last of these was applied last month, when it reached the current figure. The Workers’ CTA abstained and the Autonomous CTA rejected it.

That debate was not exempt from tensions. Mario Manrique, second in command at mechanics’ and transport workers’ union SMATA and a Unión por la Patria national deputy candidate, angrily but unsuccessfully demanded to speak during the debate. Afterwards, Pablo Moyano logged off from the virtual session before it reached the vote, incensed by the modest result of the deliberations, as he later explained.

Originally published on Ámbito.com

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