The Ministry of Social Security led by Elma Saiz faces a tight schedule and an unfavorable political scenario to carry out the latest pension reform. The pact, signed this summer, includes measures aimed at making salary and pension compatible through the different retirement arrangements. One of them is the extension of partial retirement with a relief contract, legislation specific to the manufacturing industry, to the rest of the sectors with a validity of four years. The government already approved last year “at the last minute” the one-year extension of this type of pension, which now risks falling into limbo. Therefore, it has the scenarios of an extension of current legislation or an acceleration of the recent reform process with an urgent royal decree to resolve an essential measure for businesses and unions.
The minister now has the possibility of extend the partial retirement of industry again with a new royal decreea formula which would save this regulation, as explained by various sources of social dialogue and not denied by the ministry. Once approved by the Council of Ministers, it would be published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and come into force, temporarily saving the regulation just one year after doing so on December 27, a few days before its decline. The only condition for the government would be to obtain a simple majority in Congress to validate the measure within a month.
At the same time, the content of the latest pension pact could progress with the corresponding parliamentary process, which requires a longer period of around four months. He parliamentary process It first goes to Congress, with the presentation phase, the commission and the plenary session; then to the Senate, where he followed the same path. Once this law has been developed, if the Executive manages to move it forward, the new regulations would replace the extension of the current legislation currently being reformed.
THE Another alternative is the formula of the royal decree-law of an emergency nature.as ABC moved forward. It would include the block of measures that affect the compatibility of the recovery of salaries and pensions, which includes retirement with a relief contract, justifying the reason of urgency with the requirements of the calendar and the risk that the current framework of partial retirement declines with recovery. .
Regardless, these sources agree that the fragmentation of reform blocks that must pass the parliamentary process will be avoidedsince they all constitute a modification of the general law on social security. Thus, it is planned to include in the reform package, either by emergency or by parliamentary procedure in the form of law, the recovery of the coefficient to improve the contribution of fixed-term and intermittent contracts and facilitate their access to retirement.
The two other blocks of the reform have different approval routes which do not necessarily have to go through the political field. This is the case for reducing coefficients to anticipate retirement for professional reasons, arduousness or toxicity, among others, if the worker does not have an alternative position. This is a regulation processed by royal decree, that is to say it was approved by the last Council of Ministers last week and does not need parliamentary validation. The same goes for the agreements that the Autonomous Communities and mutual societies will sign so that public health services have access to the services of mutual societies when this allows them to reduce waiting times in certain musculoskeletal pathologies.
New proposed regulation
The Government has agreed with social agents on a flexibility of access to partial retirement with reliefthe point that was the biggest obstacle at the dialogue table. This scheme makes it possible to receive salaries and pensions while facilitating exit from the labor market.
Access to partial retirement with a replacement contract can take place up to three years before the corresponding ordinary legal retirement age, depending on the years of accumulated contributions. The reduction in working time for semi-retirees during the first year will be at least 20% and at most 33%, for those who anticipate accessing retirement for more than two years.
The contribution of the company and the semi-retiree will gradually increase in the following ways: 40% in 2025; 50% in 2026; 60% in 2027; 70% in 2028 and 80% in 2029, according to the text.
Social Security will require that the company recruits at least 75% of its workforce for an indefinite period, even if permanent workers may participate in the replacement process to succeed the employee who gradually leaves their position.
The final decision
In extremis. A little less than a year ago, Moncloa resorted to multiple regulatory changes carried out through Royal Decree-Law 8/2023, approved after Christmas. The text was included in the so-called decree containing anti-crisis measures related to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East. It saw the light of day at the BOE on December 27, just a few days after the regulations were abandoned. The package of measures received the support of a simple majority of the different groups in the Lower House on January 10.
He then had a large majority, with the support of the government coalition, Vox, the nationalist parties except Junts and the abstention of the PP. The UGT took advantage of its visit to Genoa to ask for support from the popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who suggested his support for the reform sealed within the framework of social dialogue. Harmony between employers and unions, as well as public position displayed by both to accelerate the processing of this type of retirement This time seems to obtain the green light from the Lower House.
