The Congress of Deputies has in its hands an important legislative change to expand the catalog of early retirements alongside the latest reform. Before the summer, the Senate approved an initiative of the PP so that the agents of the national police, civil guard and customs can access early retirement from age 59 without loss of pension, such as Ertzaintza or Mossos d’Esquadra.
In this way they would be assimilated to regional security forces and bodies, as well as to the Local Policewho can already benefit from reducing coefficients to bring forward their retirement age. The brief initiative is in the amendment phase in the Lower House and the objective is to seal a political pact through budgets alongside the development of regulations that will accommodate more groups in the catalog of early retirement for professional reasons.
The proposal of the Popular Group, which at the time had the abstention of the PSOE, took a new direction through alliance between Feijóo and one of the most representative national unions, the UGTwhich goes hand in hand with the police union Federal Police Union (UFP).
The secretary of Institutional Policy and Territorial Policies of the UGT, Cristina Estévez, led the union’s position in the Lower House and explains to ‘elEconomista.es’ that the socialists would now be open to this reform. The union launched a series of contacts with all political groups -except Vox, which does not recognize the union, explains Estévez- to explain the proposal and know the demands of each party. They have a meeting in progress with Sumar and with the Ministry of Social Security, on which this legislation depends.
The initiative that the PP managed to advance in the Senate barely contained certain details. The most important content was the proposal that officials of the National Police, Civil Guard and Customs could benefit from a reduction coefficient of 0.2%, comparable to the application of an advance of up to six years on the ordinary retirement agedue to its status as a risky profession.
The comparative crime
But what motivates this reform is that other security forces and autonomy bodies benefit from this “benefit” and a comparative grievance appears. These are members of the Ertzaintza corps, the local police, members of the Mossos d’Escuadra corps and the Navarre provincial police.
Social Security also includes in this catalog professions with access to early retirement due to group or professional activity under a series of conditions and, in all cases, always from 52 years old: miners, aircrew, railway workers, artists, bullfighting professionals, firefighters serving the administration and public bodies.
It is this comparative grievance which motivates the PP and the two unions to propose a reform of the catalog of risky professions with access to early retirement under this justification. For this reason, Estévez specifies that this initiative follows the political path that other groups have previously benefited from: an agreement included in the General State Budgets (PGE), with an agreement between the partiesinstead of going through the regulation formula which requires submitting a series of justification reports. This is the formula with which the PNV managed to include the “ertzainas” in the 2010 budget thanks to an agreement with the PSOE at the end of 2009.
The groups have extended the amendment deadline several times since the initiative entered Congress. In this phase, everyone can make their contribution to enrich the text. In fact, they should expand the proposal to detail the number of cited years of service that would be required to national police officers, civil guards and customs officers in exchange for early retirement – for example, local police officers must have 36 years and six months of effective contributions in this profession to be able to retire at 59; or the additional supplement in the form of social security contributions to bear the cost of these premature departures – around 10.6 points more on social security contributions due to common hazards.
Firefighters and forestry agents, Kellys…
A few weeks ago, the Senate gave the green light to a similar matter. Firefighters and forestry agents outside the public sector will be recognized as a high-risk profession with access to early retirement for professional reasons under conditions similar to those of public firefighters.
This initiative plans to modify the general social security law in parallel with the new regulations developed by the ministry for early retirement. In all cases, the regulations in force at the time of submission of the reports and the relevant requirements will be followed to justify the advance payment of the group.
Housekeepers – commonly known as “kellys”, urban waste collectors who work at night in unsanitary conditions, road transport drivers or people who look after dependent people with reduced mobility are in the category. list of professions that opt for early retirement with the new regulations.
“The set of activities should be reviewed and prioritized objectively to include only those that are truly justified. And the list cannot be long or not very detailed,” said Manuel Álvarez, honorary collaborator of Ocopen and former advisor to Escrivá in a forum of elEconomista.es. Professional groups that accept early retirement are generally groups that are effectively organized for lobbying purposes and originate primarily from the public sector.
