Mental health remains one of the biggest problems of workers and which is increasing. In fact, according to a UGT reportlast year there were a total of 468,093 work casualties due to mental health problems. Despite the evolution of employee rights, it is still an issue where much remains to be done.
Alfonso Muñoz Cuenca, Social Security official and expert in pensions and benefits that has launched a proposal that qualifies as “novel” has spoken on this subject. It is about creating a paid permit for workers with long contribution periods, without the need to claim a specific reason, “simply to have a small respite” and take advantage of it “in leisure, training or, simply, rest.”
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Muñoz explains that “the labor concerns of workers and the needs to be protected in the workplace have changed a lot over time” and defends that it is necessary to “adapt the benefits existing to new social realities” and “create new aids for emerging contingencies such as the mental health of workers.”
The official explains that if “a person can start working at age 16 and cannot retire until 67, except in specific cases”, it means that “it may be working and contributing to the Social Security system for 51 years in a row without stopping” without the system allowing “not even a small respite.” That is why he asks: “How does this work sentence affect the physical and mental health of the worker?”
“If a worker has the right to unemployment, why other cannot be entitled to a paid temporary break”
On this he exposes an example, in which he points out that “if a worker who has quoted six years and is unemployed, he is entitled to two years of unemployment benefit, why does one who have been working for several decades cannot access a paid temporary rest?” Therefore, he thinks that this right “would help reduce the number of medical casualties and the percentage of disabilities.”
Thus, he explains that for example, “whoever has been quoted uninterruptedly” should enjoy “a paid rest of at least six months” to “oxygenate, update or improve their training with more peace of mind.” For Alfonso, he has all the meaning of the world, since as he explains “many workers reach 67 years burned and exhausted after a lifetime of work without rest; so much so that, who can, opt for early retirement even if they lose money, thinking about their health and welfare.”
In his video, he also reflects the good social security data regarding the affiliation system, in which he says that social security “has reached a historical record of affiliation, with almost 22 million quotes” and in which “the youth unemployment rate is at 26.5%, the lowest since 2008”. That is, we are better than ever, but he feels that these positive data are not moving to improve the working conditions of the workers or, as the “conditions to advance retirement or in breaks that allow the worker to reach in good condition his retirement” say.