After weeks of negotiations, the government has finally come to an agreement with companies, representatives from local chamber of commerce groups and the CGT umbrella union grouping that will see private-sector workers receive a 5,000-peso bonus.
"During the meeting, the parties agreed on a recompensatory mandatory salary payment of 5,000 pesos for private-sector workers. It will be of a non-remunerative nature and on account of
the wage renegotiation talks," said Production and Labour Minister Dante Sica in a statement.
The one-off payment will be mandatory, the Labour Ministry said, and will be "non-remunerative" in nature, i.e. not subject to tax. No date has been set for the payment, which will be discussed as part of wage re-negotiation talks.
The respective sides are due to thrash out the small print and finer details today.
The agreement comes amid soaring inflation and falling purchasing power and comes in the wake of a sharp depreciation in the value of the peso following Alberto Fernández's win in the last month's PASO primaries.
The Confederación Argentina de la Mediana Empresa (Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Enterprises, CAME) requested that payment be executed in at least five installments, the business entity said after the meeting.
"A principle of agreement was reached, after intense meetings and efforts, to improve the level of income of private workers in the face of the incessant increase in inflation and poverty and indigence rates," a CAME spokesmen said.
However, representatives from the chamber later told Perfil that "what was signed is not a bonus, but a salary recomposition." CAME remains keen to spread the figure over a number of paycheques, yet the government wants it pushed through as a single payment.
– TIMES/NA/TÉLAM
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