ANAFRIC, as a legitimate business organization authorized to participate in the Negotiating Committee for the National Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Meat Industry, is actively participating in the talks for the renewal of the agreement through its own platform. This platform aims to ensure that the new agreement reflects the realities and possibilities of the sector, and that any improvements in labor rights included are achievable. Furthermore, it seeks to incorporate fundamental aspects for the proper organization of work.
ANAFRIC welcomes the fact that other business organizations have incorporated some of the key points that the association has been raising in its own platform, especially the need to address absenteeism, improve productivity, strengthen occupational health and safety, and provide companies with greater organizational adaptability. For the association, this convergence confirms that the new agreement must go beyond salary updates and offer solutions to the operational problems that meat companies face daily.
However, ANAFRIC believes that the creation of observatories and commissions must be accompanied by concrete, applicable, and legally sound measures. These include adapting performance systems to exceptional situations affecting production or marketing—which have been impacting the sector—strengthening disciplinary measures against fraud in timekeeping, unjustified absences, and the simulation of presence, regulating mandatory medical examinations and preventive alcohol and drug tests in high-risk positions, establishing the obligation to notify the company of temporary incapacity, and improving company tools for organization, prevention, and control, always respecting the principles of proportionality, privacy, and legal certainty.
ANAFRIC points out that “the collective agreement must protect workers’ rights, but it must also allow companies to organize production, prevent risks, combat absenteeism, and respond to variations in demand. Without productivity and competitiveness, there is no sustainable employment.”
At the last meeting on July 8th, the major labor unions presented their response to the employers’ proposals and their demands. The union proposal calls for salary increases of 4.5% in 2026 and 4% in 2027 and 2028, with unlimited inflation adjustments and no compensation or absorption. It also includes new structural costs, such as a €120 monthly multi-skilling bonus and a €60 monthly shift work bonus. Furthermore, it demands raising the value of overtime to 25% of the regular hourly rate and increasing the hardship, hazard, and unhealthy work bonuses. Regarding working hours, it proposes a cumulative reduction of 20 hours, bringing the total to 1,728 hours per year by 2028. In addition, it proposes that the fifteen-minute lunch break be counted as effective working time and limit the regular workday to nine hours. It also proposes maintaining the flexibility pool at 120 hours.
This position falls far short of those put forward by ANAFRIC, and in addition to being far from the proposed increases put forward by the employers’ association, it does not, for now, consider proposals for improving organizational capacity, company oversight, safety, and adaptation to production needs, including reviewing professional categories, strengthening controls against absenteeism and time-travel fraud, or mandating medical check-ups and the immediate reporting of temporary disability situations. Therefore, “we still find ourselves in clearly disparate positions, both due to the significant economic impact of the union demands and the lack of response to the needs for flexibility, productivity, and control” advocated by ANAFRIC.
The postponement of the meeting scheduled for July 23 does not suggest that the negotiating positions will improve in the short term. Therefore, the association will continue to advocate for a balanced, realistic, and beneficial negotiation for the entire sector, with particular attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
