Overview
- ELA and LAB leaders Mitxel Lakuntza and Garbiñe Aranburu met with lehendakari Imanol Pradales and vicelehendakari Mikel Torres on Wednesday to demand firm commitments to create an autonomous Basque Salario Mínimo Interprofesional.
- The unions are asking for a Basque SMI set at €1,500 for Hego Euskal Herria as a floor to lift low pay in the region.
- ELA publicly asked the Basque Government to withdraw subsidies to employers’ confederation Confebask after it refused to negotiate on a regional SMI, a step meant to increase fiscal and political pressure on employers.
- The meetings brought talks to the highest regional level but produced no final agreement, leaving negotiations ongoing and relations between government, unions and employers tense.
- Under Spain’s national SMI framework, a separate Basque SMI would be an unusual decentralisation that could raise wages for low‑paid workers, force new collective talks with employers and reshape regional labour policy.