Minimum Wage: Minister of Finance opens a window and admits that he could negotiate until March

There was a lot of expectation regarding the possibility that the government would come up with a new proposal to the Finance Commission to resuscitate the minimum wage readjustment project that risks being rejected by the Chamber of Deputies.

But the Minister of Finance, Ignacio Briones, after long interventions by unions, parliamentarians, and his, only limited himself to opening a crack in the specialized instance to try to find a point of agreement on the initiative. “It makes a lot of sense to give us an intermediate station to assess the economic situation of employment in March, I think it is a feasible route. I am very open in the line of talking, we have to quickly close this issue, “he said before the parliamentarians, after the president of the Central Unitary of Workers (CUT), Bárbara Figueroa, and the deputies José Miguel Ortiz (DC) and Marcelo Schilling (PS), will point out the possibility of an agreement in less than one year.

Even during the conversations between the government and the CUT, prior to the sending of the project, this possibility was mentioned on the part of the Central, that a minimum wage be set for a shorter period of time and that the unemployment and unemployment situation be evaluated later. growth, considering that the country is leaving quarantines behind. As these negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful, the CUT withdrew this proposal.

It should be remembered that the bill presented by the government proposes a 0.4% increase for one year, with which this stipend would go from the current $ 320,500 to $ 322,000, which most opposition parliamentarians considered insufficient. In fact, the House Labor Committee rejected last Friday the idea of ​​legislating on the initiative and the text will go with a negative report to the room.

The committees decided to send the text to the Treasury to see if there was an alternative to bring positions closer together, as evidenced by its president, Deputy Daniel Núñez (PC): “When a project is rejected in the Commission, it is not to reject properly, it is to force the government to negotiate. And it is a disappointment, Minister because apart from your words of good breeding, I expected a change in the figure. Until now, then, the only viable solution is rejection, an opportunity has been lost ”.

For her part, the head of the CUT said: “Negotiating for six months is very healthy, but it must be much more than what was put on the table.”

A bill to decree two new inalienable holidays for commercial workers was presented by opposition deputies. In the core it is proposed that October 25 be classified as a “mandatory and inalienable holiday”, and if the conditions warrant it to protect the health of the population, it also has the same regime on April 11, 2021, date of the election of Constituents. “This is a request supported by the Alliance for Commerce, who are workers in this field,” commented one of the sponsoring deputies, Gael Yeoman (CS).