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Salary Increase: Entrepreneurs assert that no dialogue is legitimate if it excludes an involved actor

For this year, the COB proposed to the national Government an 8% increase in the national minimum wage and a 7% increase in the basic wage.

Una mujer cuenta dinero en corte de 200 bolivianos. Foto: ABI

A woman counts money in denominations of 200 bolivianos. Photo: ABI

“No dialogue process is legitimate if it deliberately excludes one of the involved actors in the solution,” asserted the Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia (CEPB) on Monday, referring to the negotiation of the salary increase between the Government and the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB).

The entrepreneurs’ confederation considered it is not the time for radicalism, but to articulate demands, realities, and wills to find fair balances that address the needs of workers without harming the stability of companies.

For this year, the COB proposed to the Government an 8% increase in the national minimum wage and a 7% increase in the basic wage. This is despite the fact that the accumulated inflation in 2023 only reached 2.12%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

According to the Minister of Labor, Verónica Navia, both sectors were supposed to resume negotiations on the salary increase on Monday.

Meanwhile, the president of the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Cochabamba, Luis Laredo, preemptively rejected any salary increase agreed upon by the Government and the main workers’ organization until his sector is called to participate.

“Other people cannot decide on the salary increase for us,” Laredo told RTP.

The demand of the private sector to establish a tripartite table – Government, entrepreneurs, and COB – to negotiate the salary increase dates back many years. However, to date, the request has not been taken into account.

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