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MADRID, March 27 (Reuters) - Telefonica has reachedan agreement with workers in Spain to guarantee jobs andincrease salaries until at least 2014 in exchange for suspendingcompany contributions to staff pensions for 15 months, labourunions said.
Workers will be safe in their jobs until 2014 and salarieswill rise 1 percent this year and next, in line with a previousagreement, unions said on Wednesday. They added that the dealcould be extended until 2015.
There was no word on how much Telefonica might save from thepension measure and the company declined to comment on theagreement.
Spain's unemployment rate has reached 26 percent in a deepeconomic crisis and the country's biggest companies continue tolay off staff to cut costs. Lender Caixabank said onWednesday that it plans to lay off 2,600 workers, whileloss-making airline Iberia is to axe 3,141 workers andcut salaries.
"(The Telefonica deal) breaks the trend both in the sectorand the country, with companies totally unwilling to risk salaryincreases or make medium-term promises, which highlights howpositive this agreement is," the CCOO and UGT unions said in astatement.
The agreement also saves staff from earlier Telefonicaproposals to reduce summer and Christmas bonus payments and cutback the number of personal days employees are allowed to takeoff, the unions said.
Telefonica said in 2011 that it would lay off 6,500 workersin its home market over three years. The company's revenuesdropped 13 percent in 2012 as cash-strapped consumers ditchedtheir mobiles or switched to budget operators.
Rival Vodafone, also facing falling earnings in therecession-hit economy, has said that it will lay off 620 workersin Spain.
In a country where labour negotiations can drag on formonths, the Telefonica agreement was thrashed out with theunions in less than three weeks.
