Government rules out public sector pay rises next year

The minister of public administration, Alexandra Leitão, on Monday ruled out the possibility of widespread wage increases in the civil service next year due to the current macroeconomic scenario.

“It is wishful thinking that this could happen. At this moment, given the macroeconomic scenario, we are not proposing [wage increases] and I do not think we can propose it. Now, naturally, until the closure of negotiations, there may be news, but I do not think there will be in this matter,” the minister said.

Alexandra Leitão was speaking at the end of the first round of negotiations with the trade unions regarding the annual general negotiation.

“What I expressed within the meetings is that it is the desire of the Ministry of Public Administration and, in general, of the government, that we could have generalised increases in line with the 1% that was referred to in October 2019 and that ended up not materialising,” but “the macroeconomic scenario does not yet allow us to do so”, the minister also said.

The minister said that in January there will be an increase in the national minimum wage, which will also be reflected in the public administration.

This is the first round of negotiations with trade unions, and another is scheduled for Thursday.

Last year, the annual negotiations also started days before the delivery of the State Budget for 2020/21 in parliament, without the government putting forward a proposal for wage increases.

The salary issue was discussed already at the beginning of 2021 and resulted in increases of €20 in salaries up to €665 (equal to the national minimum wage) and €10 for salaries between €665 and €791.91.

Alexandra Leitão said at the time that the increases in 2021 covered all workers with salaries below €800, which translated into 148,000 workers covered and an expense of €41 million.

The number of public administration workers is more than 700,000.