The Government will sign the final touches to the pension system with social workers today. The pact includes changes to partial retirement to make salary and pension compatible, early retirement for professional reasons, the role of collaborating mutual societies in diagnoses of temporary incapacity and the contribution of permanent-arrested workers. President Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, will sign the agreement reached at the end of July with the consensus of the social dialogue, but they now face the demands of political groups in a fragmented Lower House.
The Government will meet today at 9:30 in the morning, at 9:30 in the morning, with the negotiators of the employers and the unions, at the Moncloa Palace, as is customary to certify this type of economic reforms. The photo of the socialists and the consensus of the pact could represent a political victory for Saiz, who inherited the remains of the previous reform practically completed by the former minister of the sector José Luis Escriva. Nothing could be further from the truth, The agreement is not at all guaranteed in the House and the minister will have to fight with the traditional partners of the Government. and, of course, with the opposition.
Nationalist parties such as ERC, Bildu or BNG have already made their differences known to Minister Saiz last week, when she presented the content of the reform to the Congress of Deputies. The Catalans, Basques and Galicians intend to modify the regulatory development of the reform in exchange for a favorable vote, while the PP will do the same and its vote is not even assured.
The members of the social dialogue are in fact concerned that the negotiations and the successful agreement reached will not be enough once the reform reaches the political arena. Trade union and employer sources express their concern about the changes that the political groups could introduce in the parliamentary process, as well as the uncertainty generated by the PSOE minority and the legislative blockage in Congress, which could reverse the reform.
Political groups have the reasons and the power to fine-tune the reform with the corresponding amendments. In the political game and the dance of support, nationalists usually “erase” these types of measures in exchange for their support. For example, the now defunct PDeCat incorporated in the last sections of the pension reform the “solidarity quota” that will pay salaries above the maximum contribution base.
The speed with which this reform was attempted is essential, because it prevented the previous “political work”. The content of the agreement had not reached the Permanent Commission of the Toledo Pact until last week, when Minister Saiz made the corresponding presentation.
Among the aspects that the groups also lacked, there are absence of economic report including financial impact measures proposed on public accounts. For example, access to early retirement for professional, dangerous or difficult reasons means that a certain number of workers leave the labour market after 60 years, with the corresponding income in contributions that they no longer receive from Social Security and the pension paid before the ordinary age.
Keys to the agreement signed today
Pension reform is structured around four points: improving the compatibility between retirement and work; regulating a new procedure for accessing retirement in very dangerous activities; better use of mutual aid resources in traumatic processes; and improving contribution coefficients for retirements of permanent discontinuous workers.
The government and social agents have designed a new framework to make the perception of salary with a certain percentage of pension which will reach 100% if the worker delays retirement by five years. In addition, it offers a 2% supplement to the pension for every six months of delay, whereas previously it was 4% for each year; or a bank check.
One of the most difficult points to make citizens understand is the new system of access to early retirement in dangerous or arduous jobswith which we tried to define the objective causes for a worker to benefit from this modality beyond the professional groups that already have access to it.
The government has opened the door to the development trauma processes workers on temporary disability to collaborating mutuals in order to reduce public health waiting lists. Mutuals can carry out diagnoses in traumatic processes provided they have the worker’s agreement.
Permanent discontinuous workers recover the coefficient of 1.5 on their paid days to protect seasonal workers, in sectors such as agriculture or hospitality, and facilitate their access to retirement.
