The PNV calls on unions and employers to "set aside the red lines" to negotiate the minimum wage EH Bildu denounces the "veto of the debate"
The PSE-EE advocates "collective bargaining," while the PP points to the "loss of competitiveness" as a reason to oppose its own rule.
The PNV calls on trade unions and businesses to "dialogue, negotiate and, where appropriate, reach an agreement", regardless of the "red lines", while EH Bildu denounces the "veto of employers" by not accepting the popular legislative initiative in the Basque Parliament.
The PSE-EE defends the "path of collective bargaining" to an agreement The PP speaks of "loss of competitiveness" because the extra cost "would also be borne by the self-employed"
In the "Parliament in the Waves" debate on Radio Euskadi, the parties have debated around the rejection of the popular legislative initiative presented bythe unions in the Basque Parliament for an own Interprofessional Minimum Wage. The initiative, supported by 138,000 signatures, was rejected by 44 parliamentary representatives (PNV, PSE-EE, PP and Vox) and supported by 27.
The PNV parliamentarian Markel Aranburu has justified that "sooner rather than later Euskadi will have the minimum wage agreed here", that "it will be adapted to our socio-economic reality", which will be "a collective victory for both workers and businesses".
To this end, it has called on the trade unions and business organisations to 'dialogue, negotiate and, where appropriate, reach an agreement, because now is their time, because Basque society is waiting for them'.
For his part, EH Bildu'sMember of Parliament , Ander Goikoetxea, has denounced that when you talk about minimum wages, you talk about "being poor working, because the cost of living here is higher than the state average."
After arguing, like the PNV and the PSE, that his party supports an "inter-professional agreement" for a Basque minimum wage, he has denounced the existence of an "employer veto: several times, this very Tuesday in the Basque Parliament."
"Living conditions are different (in the Basque Country) and there is a possibility of a differentiated framework, so we do not understand why Confebask is to be granted the right of veto. The trade unions have brought a proposal in line with the majority, and what they have replied in Parliament is that they do not even want to talk about it. "
In addition, Goikoetxea has added that "the message that is intended to be conveyed to the public is that no attempt should be made to amend the laws by means of citizen participation", since "in one month two popular legislative initiatives with more than 100,000 signatures have arrived in Parliament, and in no case has the procedure been approved".
Patricia Campero, a member of parliament ofthe PSE-EE , advocates the path of collective bargaining to agree on the improvement of working conditions and recalls that in the ACV "almost 90% of workers support collective bargaining", so it is "the most realistic and effective way".
"We believe that territorialization (of the minimum wage), as proposed, is not a good solution," he explained, "because the territory opens up a path of competition between them and we believe that this is not the right procedure."
Basque PPMP Muriel Larrea has argued that the ACV should not have its own minimum wage because "competitiveness and mobility of our workers would be lost."
Amaia Martinez, a member of parliament from Vox , has stressed that the minimum wage is a "national competence" that must be "the same for all Spaniards".