The Spanish government has taken a significant step towards improving worker protection: On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers gave the green light to the framework for early retirement in professions with the highest health risks. This is a preparatory step that establishes general criteria, paving the way for specific negotiations in individual sectors and activities.
The approved decree sets the “rules of the game” and prepares the ground for future agreements. However, the specific conditions for each profession must still be approved by a royal decree after passing an evaluation commission and receiving approval from the Social Security. Elma Saiz, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, welcomed the measure as a step that “brings Spain closer to the policies approved in countries like France, Austria or Italy.” She emphasized: “We know that there are jobs that are particularly hard, and others that become particularly hard in the final years of working life.”
The text now adopted includes more detailed definitions for professional activities that may lead to retirement under this framework. Objective indicators are also established, where the frequency, severity, and duration of sick leave play a crucial role.
Early retirement due to health risks is already applied in occupations such as seafarers, miners, and flight personnel. For these groups, the existing conditions remain unchanged. For new groups that will be agreed upon as reduction coefficients (the metric that determines how much the withdrawal can be brought forward), new conditions will apply. Employees who can retire early for these reasons must pay an additional contribution to their social security. It is also excluded to retire before reaching the age of 52. Furthermore, it is not permitted to combine the pension with an activity in the same profession that led to their early retirement.
