UPTA “will not allow” the self-employed to be left out of the early retirement reform

The Government of Spain is working on an early retirement reform that will include expanding the groups of workers eligible to retire before the normal retirement age. Social Security works with social agents to establish a series of indicators and expand the range of professions classified as dangerous, painful or with a high rate of work accidents to enter the new early retirement. From the UPTA self-employed association, they express that they will not allow “that the self-employed are left out of the early retirement reform“.

The self-employed can retire early, up to two years, voluntarily, when they meet the requirements, in a similar way to the General Regime. They do not have access to involuntary early retirement due to termination of the employment relationship for objective reasons. And, in the case of reducing coefficients, the draft to establish the regulatory development of access to early retirement for painful, toxic or dangerous reasons does not exclude self-employed workers.

The secretary of the association, Eduardo Abad, has explained to elEconomista.es that, while professions such as “bullfighter or artist” They have the possibility of benefiting from reducing coefficients, “bricklayers or taxi drivers” are left out of the “8-9 sectors” that can benefit from them. “The catalog of professions who have the right to early retirement It has to be different between the self-employed and employees, since the number of hours is not controlled by an agreement and can lead to problems that affect third parties,” explains Abad.

The association denounces that the Ministry of Social Security, led by Elma Saiz, is “forget about the self-employed” and professionals who perform dangerous, arduous work with a high rate of work-related accidents and accidents. These professionals face dangerous situations, which makes carrying out their jobs a true balancing act.

Social dialogue sources deny that the self-employed are left out of this regulatory development. “The self-employed are not excluded from this consideration in the debate on the regulatory development of the new article 206 of the General Social Security Law in this matter, which is one of the matters that are being discussed. In fact, The incorporation of self-employment is foreseen when it is determined that a profession or activity has to have this consideration“, they explain.

Furthermore, they remember that access to early retirement for reasons of hardship, toxicity or danger has a series of requirements. Among the most notable, the additional contribution that some professions entail to advance their retirement.

New range of professions

Abad gives as an example hairdressers, bricklayers, taxi drivers or transporters and asks to “be consistent” with the reform carried out by the Ministry. In this way, they ask for an independent catalog for the autonomous group “so that they can be included in early retirement reform. For example, those professions with long working hours with a lack of time control and without any regulation, because they are not protected by agreements, with workers being especially affected. “false self-employed and TRADE”highlights the general secretary of UPTA.

On the table there are several professions that have great possibilities of benefiting from the new retirement conditions. They are the maids, known as Kellys, or the caregivers of dependent people.

From UPTA, they add that “we do not understand what a self-employed person doing on a scaffold at 66 years old, nor how an elderly taxi driver does long days of more than 14 hours. Nor do we understand that beauty salon workers are exposed to toxic and harmful substances throughout their careers. Nor do the bakers have shifts from 2 in the morning, or the transporters of broken goods. Not to mention many other professions, which, by their very nature, become dangerous activities for the community.”

The general secretary highlights to this medium that the self-employed work “an average of 3 hours a day more than a salaried employeereaching 50 hours per week in the best of cases”, estimating the average between 50 and 60 hours per week for the group.

In this way, the organization will request a meeting with the competent Ministries to discuss the reform that the Government wants to implement “in these coming weeks”, since Saiz, “has not met with the self-employed”, as the president of ATA, Lorenzo Amor, has also denounced on his X account (formerly Twitter).

“The self-employed are also workers and we will not allow, once again, differences to occur with negative connotations between employed work and self-employed work,” UPTA concludes.