Sixteen years after the Government approved the cut in the extra pay of public employees as an exceptional measure to cope with the economic crisis, five professional organizations have joined forces to demand its full restoration. The Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA), the Federation of Senior Civil Service Bodies (FEDECA), the prison officials' union Tu Abandono Me Puede Matar (TAMPM), and the Trade Union of Education Inspectors (USIE) have launched a joint campaign to demand an end to a measure that, they assure, continues to affect some 2.9 million public employees.
The organizations maintain that the cut, approved in 2010 as temporary, has become a structural reduction in remuneration. They denounce that, while the initial reduction was a percentage, subsequent salary increases have been linear, which, combined with inflation, has aggravated the loss of purchasing power for civil servants and statutory personnel.
The unions provide examples of the economic impact that, according to their calculations, the measure continues to have. CESM points out that a doctor loses 724.64 euros in extra pay this summer, an amount that rises to 1,449.28 euros per year when the December payment is added. Since 2010, a doctor would have failed to receive 20,352.14 euros in salary and triennial increments alone, with a loss of purchasing power of 25% in the annual base salary and 16% in the destination allowance.
For its part, FEDECA estimates that the salary cut exceeded 10% for most of the senior civil servants it represents and puts the reduction of each extra payment between 550 and 1,750 euros, depending on seniority. Prison officials grouped in TAMPM calculate they have failed to receive around 6,000 euros in these years, while USIE places the loss for Education inspectors at around 15,000 euros, depending on the pay differences between autonomous communities.
The five organizations consider that there are no longer reasons to maintain a cut that they describe as an "outrage" and "discrimination", recalling that the economic crisis that justified the measure has been officially declared overcome and that tax collection is at historic highs. Therefore, they have requested meetings with both the ministries involved and the parliamentary groups to demand the full recovery of the extraordinary payment. Furthermore, they announce that they have already initiated contacts with other public employee unions to coordinate joint actions starting in September if their demands are not met.