Civil servants are pushing for a pay raise that is not dependent on new state budgets.
Spanish government and social partners begin negotiations to increase public sector salaries
Madrid / BarcelonaThe Spanish government does not yet have a draft national budget for 2026, but for public sector workers, this cannot be an obstacle to receiving a salary increase in 2025. Normally, these salary increases are included in new public accounts. Civil servants have been pressuring Pedro Sánchez's government for days to take action – the main unions representing civil servants (CCOO, UGT, and CSIF) They have threatened a general strike This December—for now, they have managed to get negotiations to resume this Wednesday with the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, under the leadership of Óscar López (PSOE).
A salary increase would affect 3.5 million public sector workers and civil servants. The unions are confident that Óscar López's ministry will come to Wednesday's meeting with a proposal on the table that includes a multi-year increase, thus guaranteeing improved purchasing power in the coming years. Part of the unions' discontent stems from the ministry's cooling of the option of increasing public sector salaries in 2025 due to the lack of a state budget.
For the unions, it is essential not only that public sector salaries be revalued, but also that this increase be retroactive (from January 1, 2024) and multi-year, that is, that it cover more than one fiscal year. In fact, the current agreement was implemented in 2022 and expired in December 2024. Since then, wages have been frozen, which is why unions are demanding that the 2025 agreement be retroactive. The agreement came after it was established that public sector salaries should rise based on key economic indicators. This potential increase in public sector salaries could also be a catalyst for breaking the deadlock in negotiations between the CCOO and UGT unions and the Spanish employers' association, CEOE, for a new Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining. This guide for workers and companies when negotiating collective agreements also expires in 2025 and is therefore an open front for the social partners. Although the inflationary environment is less severe compared to recent years, unions will push for a wage increase, especially considering housing prices, while the CEOE is focusing on issues such as absenteeism.