The president of the Confederation of Business Associations of the Balearic Islands (CAEB), Carmen Planas, has advocated a wage increase not linked to inflation. This was stated during the conference ‘Benefits of flexible remuneration for workers and employers’ organised by MAPFRE and Cuatrecasas, where the advantages and legal aspects to be taken into account in order to implement flexible remuneration in each company or organisation were discussed.

During his speech, Planas took the opportunity to recall that “businessmen are not oblivious to the problems generated by inflation that we have not suffered in Spain for more than 30 years and also to the negative effects of the war in Ukraine”. In this sense, and in relation to the collective agreements that are being negotiated, “while agreeing that wages must rise, it must be borne in mind that the costs of the current inflationary crisis cannot be borne solely by companies in the form of partial measures or wage rises”.

For the CAEB president, “it is particularly important to avoid a scenario in which price and wage increases feed back on each other, so as not to produce second-round effects that lead us into an inflationary spiral. Adjusting wage increases in line with inflation would mean more unemployment and the closure of many companies. We at CAEB have been calling for a tax cut for some time now so that companies and citizens can see the fiscal pressure on their balance sheets and paychecks alleviated”.

Carmen Planas ended her speech by saying that “we want to improve the lives of our workers because our teams are essential for employers, as we always defend from CAEB, but without compromising the viability of companies”.

Flexible remuneration

The conference organised by MAPFRE and Cuatrecasas was well attended. Guillermo García, partner at Cuatrecasas, argued that flexible remuneration “makes it possible to adapt the worker’s needs to their salary”. Ángel Crespo, deputy director of Mapfre Vida, said that this model “can allow workers to choose to save from their gross salary for their retirement without any fiscal impact”, in relation to the possibilities offered by flexible remuneration to include health insurance, restaurant tickets, childcare, training, etc. Carmen Planas pointed out that this remuneration variant “allows workers to have greater purchasing power without increasing the wage cost for the company. Flexible remuneration offers the possibility of improving the commitment of the worker, facilitating their daily life, and adapts to the needs of the organisation and of each employee”.