Pamplona (EFE).- The recent agreement reached between the CCOO and UGT unions with the central government for the reform of the public pension system ensures its “sustainability”, “guarantees social protection in a better way than before” and “reinforces the mechanisms of income” in Spain.
The CCOO Confederal Secretary for Public Policies and Social Protection, Carlos Bravo, said this in statements to journalists shortly before participating in a meeting with affiliates to explain the pension reform, which, however, has not had the involvement of the employers.
This is a “very relevant” agreement, especially because it makes a “clear commitment to maintaining a pension system comparable to the one we have today, not only for the generations that are going to reach retirement in the next two decades but also for the older people. youths. It is an agreement that is committed to preserving our pension system now and in the future”, Bravo said.
To this end, he explained that the foreseeable increase in pensioners in the next two decades requires greater financing, which in this reform is solved “in a manageable way”, “via income instead of reducing spending and by both the protection and coverage of our Social Security”.
Preserving the system for youth
In his opinion, this is “the best way to also preserve the system for younger people. Because if someone thinks that reducing Social Security protection today will allow it to be recovered in 30 years, they are wrong”, since the key is being able to maintain the system in these next 25 years.
Another of the measures it contains is to encourage younger people to meet all the requirements to access retirement, so that “millions of students are going to finish their studies from now on with periods of contributions to Social Security” , has valued.
To all this is added the two “very relevant” income redistribution mechanisms, in Bravo’s opinion, one, from business surpluses to work income, which means an improvement in Social Security contributions that will be considered in the coming years “slowly, progressively, over time, very manageable for companies in this country.”
This novelty “is going to concentrate the effort on large companies and public administrations”, he said after verifying that 30% of people who earn more than 4,500 euros per month, therefore above the current maximum base, work in public administrations.
Transfer of the highest incomes to the most vulnerable
The second transfer will be “from the highest incomes to the most vulnerable people and that will materialize in an increase in the maximum bases in a contribution for real income for people who have higher salaries who until now did not contribute in Spain, to improve minimum pensions and to reduce the gender gap between men and women in terms of pensions”, he has valued.
With all this, Bravo has settled the benefits of the reform, which predicts “sustainability of the pension system, income transfers, guarantee of social protection in our country in a better way than before, and at the same time reinforcement of redistribution mechanisms of income in Spain in a very notable way”.
He has been accompanied by the general secretary of the CCOO in Navarra, Chechu Rodríguez, who has presented Bravo as “one of the architects of the recently signed pension agreement”, although he has regretted that the employers have not joined, “a complicated element for us ”.
Thus, he has been very critical of the attitude of the employers, who “when they receive resources from the General State Budget they have been signing other agreements with us and with the Government, but when they are asked for an additional effort, which is nothing more than an effort in solidarity with Spanish society, is when they withdraw. When they have to put ‘pastita’ they say that others put it ”, he has made ugly