The Government will not reform pensions or make labor changes without consensus

The Government will not reform pensions or make labor changes without consensus

It also waives the right to raise the amount for scholarships and the elimination of the pharmaceutical copay, although it prepares a battery of social measures

  It is the chronicle of a death announced, but still without a clear official announcement about it, although this can be interpreted. The two major commitments that the Government of Pedro Sánchez had before it almost certainly will not be able to meet them: repeal the reform of the pensions of the PP and, in turn, eliminate the most harmful aspects of the labor reform, once it recognized that repealing it completely was not feasible. To compensate, the Executive prepares a battery of measures of a more social nature, among which would be the contribution of professional caregivers, the subsidy for over 52 years, better pensions for permanent disability or a help for families with low incomes, among others. .

  "It is not the will of the Government to make a unilateral pension reform," Labor Minister Magdalena Valerio admitted on Tuesday during an event with journalists, in line with the statements that her Treasury counterpart had made hours earlier. approve this reform by royal decree, as required by the unions day and day also.

In fact, Valerio had always defended since his arrival at La Moncloa that he would not do the same as Mariano Rajoy and that his goal was to reform the pension system with consensus, although after the early announcement of elections from Labor they were much more ambiguous and did not reject No choice. "I bear with enough pain that we have left on the way the possibility of agreement on pensions," he lamented.

After the failure of the Pact of Toledo, whose commission last week announced the lack of consensus, the only option that could be considered was to approve a new formula for the revaluation of pensions linked to prices through a Royal Decree, since was the only recommendation, number 2, on which an agreement was announced in September this commission, so that the benefits went up "based on the CPI". However, sources of the Ministry ruled out that they were going to change the law to introduce a new Pension Revaluation Index (IRP) and admitted that it will have to be the new government that agrees to decide how much pensions will rise next year, discarding also that, as a last gesture, they could approve a rise for 2020.

And, in the same way, although they still do not consider the 'counterreformation' to be buried, Valerio also ruled out any modification to the reform approved in 2012 by Rajoy that will not be validated by the Permanent Deputation, something that becomes complicated because they need of the support of PNV and PDeCAT, in addition to Podemos. "The same thing happens with the Toledo Pact but from the parliamentary point of view," he explained.

    Even so, they will continue to negotiate until the last moment with the social partners and the parliamentary groups to try to gather enough support so that the four measures that had already been agreed with the unions will finally see the light: return the prevalence of the sectoral agreement on the company, recover the ultra-activity of the agreements (ie, that are automatically extended until a new one is approved), implement a daily record of working hours in companies and limit subcontracting are those measures already agreed. It would also be possible that finally only one of them would be approved, if it received the necessary support.

But what is certain is that this will not go in the Council of Ministers this Friday, after yesterday Labor canceled the meeting of the social dialogue table "for reasons of agenda». However, measures to promote equality between men and women, although not the extension of paternity leave, will probably be approved, as anticipated by this newspaper, and in turn, prepares another battery of proposals of a more social nature, such as the payment by the State of the contributions of non-professional caregivers, which will benefit some 180,000 women with a cost of more than 300 million, an aid of up to 588 euros per year for families with few incomes or new contributions bonuses in Social Security for agricultural workers or long-term unemployed, among others. At the same time,