The second vice-president of the government and minister of labour, Yolanda Díaz, assures that she “never” publishes the reports she orders. That the usual thing in his ministry is to use them internally. According to the leader, “it’s normal, not in this government, in the previous ones too”.
“Since I have been, in all subjects, I have a lot of reports because I surround myself with technical criteria and teaching around me”, he assured during a press conference at the Euskalduna Palace, in Bilbao, within the framework of the Summit on healthy workplaces 2022 The minister also regretted that the reports had been ‘filtered’ ‘It’s not my style, as you know,’ he said in a statement he collected European press.
Last week, controversy erupted when it was learned that the Ministry of Labor refused to publish three reports that I ordered on the effects of the increase in the minimum wage. The Transparency Council asked him to make them public last September, which Díaz Department had to do within ten days of the resolution, but did not.
From his department, they allege that the three studies are in the hands of the committee of experts studying by how much the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) should increase next January. They also avoid responding if they plan to release them at some point.
“I never make public any of the heaps of reports I request”
Díaz had already transmitted the same idea that has crept in today, even in parliament: “I never make public any of the heaps of reports that I request”, argued the minister last September in a working commission. This position has exasperated various economists, What they criticized Labor for not publishing studies prepared with public funds and that they will be used to implement public policies, and that it decides, possibly, by not favoring what is said there.
Last week The country and the chain BE, the two means of the PRISA group, claims to have accessed the content of the three reports. According to both, the reports, prepared by the Iseak Foundation -led by the economist Sara de la Rica-, the University of Alcalá and the Complutense University, concluded that the increase in the basic salary reduced inequality among the workers who received it, as well as that the improvement also spread to higher wages, due to a “rebound effect”.
However, the first, which was commissioned before the other two, is the only one that analyzed the impact of recent increases in the SMI on the labor market, and argued that prevented the creation of 28,800 new jobs. Earlier, another study by the Bank of Spain warned that the rise in the 2019 SMI had caused the loss of 100,000 jobs.
For the rest, Díaz limited himself to ensuring that will call to the table to negotiate with unions and businessmen the rise of the SMI when the experts have completed their work, which includes the calculation of the average salary in Spain, and the closing of the impact of inflation is known.
“I always work to reach an agreement, even if sometimes we lose places. Therefore, I will sit at this table in accordance with Article 27 of the Workers’ Statute of our country, which states that the minimum wage in Spain will be reassessed based on four factors: the first of them, the inflation ; the second, the contribution of wage income to national income; the third of them, productivity and the fourth, the economic situation of the moment”, he deepened.