Rome, July 24 (LaPresse) – Automatically adjust public and private sector wages to both projected and actual inflation: after the battle over the minimum wage, AVS challenges the government again and addresses other centre-left forces by introducing into parliamentary debate a draft law called 'Unblock Salaries', presented in the Chamber of Deputies with the signatures of Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli.
The bill stipulates that every 12 months the government, through a decree, adjusts salaries to inflation, Fratoianni summarizes. Each year by September 30, the government – after consultation with the most representative trade unions and business associations – must issue a decree establishing the percentage for adjusting public and private salaries, calculated based on the actual inflation of the previous 12 months and forecasts for the following 12. A sort of adjustment will then be made with the January payslip.
A reintroduction of the "escalator clause"? "It’s been 32 years since the indexing system was definitively scrapped, and now we are returning to propose this issue, updated to today’s context and with the tools we have. At the time, it was said to fuel the inflationary spiral, but now, 32 years later, someone needs to face reality: inflation has continued to rise – sometimes significantly – and wages have fallen apart," explains Fratoianni.
The expected cost for raising state employees' wages is €2 billion, which would be covered by a 4-point increase in taxation on financial income, namely dividends and capital gains from the sale of shareholdings. "But regarding funding sources," concludes the SI leader, "we are ready to discuss."