Economy

Government worker pay increases up in the air

Public employees have protested at cuts. | Joan Torres - Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma02/05/2020 10:38

The two per cent increase in salary for some 30,000 public sector workers in the Balearics is now up in the air. The crisis has naturally had a great impact on government forecasts and budget provisions, and salary increases are among these.

In the week when the state of alarm was declared, the government and unions were meeting to negotiate salaries. The unions were seeking a two per cent rise in salaries as well as for the living allowances for people who have to move to the Balearics and for the so-called professional career bonus. This equated to an additional 100 million euros of government spending. The budget for personnel employed by the government was set to rise to 821 million.

Given the circumstances, the government is considering a single option - a rise in base salary, which would be in accordance with the national government's approval in January.

Extraordinary expenditure by the regional government has so far amounted to 80 million euros - 40 million of health spending, 20 million of social spending and a further 20 million for businesses receiving funding through the Isba not-for-profit bank. In terms of revenue from regional taxes, this has all but dried up - there is no tourist tax, for example, or the tax on property sales.