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Confebask and the unions are meeting today in Bilbao after the government paralysed the Legislative Initiative calling for a minimum wage of its own

The meeting will take place in the Labour Relations Council, the day after the PNV and PSE Governments paralysed the processing of the initiative which sought to confer powers on the Basque Country to set its own minimum wage.

smi-ela-bilbao
ELA protest. Photo: EITB

Theemployers Confebask e and the trade unions ELA, LAB, Steilas, ESK, Etxalde and Hiru will face each other today in Bilbao in the conciliation act called to address the possibility of establishing their own Minimum Wage in the Basque Country, which will take place at 12 noon at the headquarters of the Council of Labour Relations and which will take place after theBasque Government rejected the Legislative Initiative yesterday.

The Basque Government , made up of PNV andPSE, yesterday suspended the People's Initiative promoted by the trade unions, despite the support of almost 140,000 signatures. Although the Government, employers and social partners are in favour of negotiating the minimum wage in the agreement, the Executive does not share the path proposed by the trade unions to transfer the necessary powers, so the initiative will not continue in the Basque Parliament.

Faced withthis situation, the Basque trade unions will maintain their commitment to direct negotiation with the employers . ELA and LAB, together with the power stations supporting the Popular Legislative Initiative, have promoted this act of conciliation as a first step in a collective conflict that could end up in court if Confebask continues to refuse to discuss an SMI of its own for the Basque Country.

The employers, who will attend the  meeting without advancing their position, have so far argued that the appropriate forum for dealing with this issue is the social dialogue table, with the participation of the Basque Government, CCOO and UGT (ELA and LAB have not participated). Furthermore, Confebask has stressed that any discussion on wages must be dealt with in conjunction with other factors affecting business competitiveness, such as absenteeism.

On the other hand, CCOO and UGT will also be present at the meeting and support the idea of a minimum wage for the agreement in the Basque Country. Since the Executive, the vicelehendakari, Mikel Torres, has once again called for dialogue between the social partners and the PNV has urged the parties to negotiate "without red lines" and has stressed that the rejected Popular Initiative does not correspond to the traditional trade union demand for a framework.

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