He Cordoba countryside You will enjoy social peace for a little over two years. The agreement concluded last week by Asaja, COAG and UGT for the renewal of the collective agreement of the Cordoba field (the previous one expired in 2023) means salary and social improvementsin addition to the working conditions of agricultural workers as set out by the signatory organizations. The document, which ABC has had access to, does not have the approval of CCOO, because this union considers that it will lead to a reduction in the workforce on farms. The number of people who will benefit from the agreement is 65,000according to the UGT, while the Labour Force Survey (EPA) indicates that the number of people employed in the primary sector in the province stood at 28,000 in the second quarter of this year.
One of the great novelties that the agreement includes compared to others and that was unknown until now is that these organizations commit to promoting a series of measures that can to compensate for the lack of manpower of work that the Cordoba countryside is currently experiencing, especially during the campaigns, a situation that has been denounced for some time by farmers and breeders themselves and by the agri-food industry.
In this regard, Annex Seven of the Agreement states that with this framework of labour relations “the best possible working conditions are created so that agricultural workers and owners of agricultural, livestock, hunting and forestry businesses”, being “the employment base and the generation of wealth in our cities”, so that “if the countryside does well, the rest of the economic sectors will do well”.
Likewise, they undertake to do more attractive work on plantations so that workers can find future employment in the primary activity. The departure of many people from the agricultural sector to other areas such as construction or hospitality because of their higher wages, especially in periods of greater demand for labor for both productive activities.
The agreement includes life and disability insurance in the event of an accident at work, covered by the companies.
It is worth noting that Asaja, COAG and UGT agree to demand that administrations adopt measures that “help get out of unemployment to workers who find themselves in this situation. With this in mind, “an analysis and reflection will be carried out to avoid having too many people registered as unemployed” in agriculture and livestock farming, “and yet there are significant labor needs that cannot be covered.” According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, at the end of August, a total of 4,243 complainants of a job in the field, which can be contradictory when it appears that employers have serious difficulties in finding candidates for jobs.
This forced the agricultural organisations to ask the Government Sub-delegation for a contingent of foreign workers to cover this deficit, something that had not happened for years. In the agreement, the signatories undertake to facilitate and assist the administrations in authorising the arrival of these people from outside Spain, an aspect that the unions have always expressed their rejection of due to the existence of unemployment in the agricultural sector.
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Regarding the new features of the document, the wage increase this year (with retroactive effect from January 1) of 6.5 percent, including the 5 percent increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) that the central government approved for 2024. Thus, between 37.06 and 58.39 euros per day. For 2025 and 2026, a minimum increase of 2% is set, which will be all the more significant the greater the increase in the SMI.
Regarding the social aspects of the agreement, the establishment from next year of a life and disability insurance for an accident at work borne by companies for their staff with a minimum compensation of 11,000 euros and funeral expenses reaching 2,500 euros.
The field also captures technological problems by recognizing the right of workers to digital disconnectionso that they have no obligation to deal with any communication device on the part of their employer outside their working hours, except in exceptional cases.
