Esquerra Republicana (ERC) defended on September 14 in the Labor Commission of the Congress a non -law proposition (NLP) that claims to the Government a decree to recognize the early retirement to the personnel of the chemical and refining industry through reducing coefficients. The training claims that these jobs are “painful, dangerous or toxic“, With a” physical, mental and social progressive “deterioration that is accentuated with age, and argues that the sector meets the requirements that already allow to advance retirement in other professions.
The NLP, of political scope and without automatic effects, urges the Executive to initiate the file that requires current regulations to reduce the ordinary retirement age due to professional activity. This procedure, regulated in Royal Decree 402/2025, forces to accredit with objective data the pain, danger, toxicity or unhealthiness of the work, as well as high rates of morbidity or mortality. In addition, it requires specific studies on accidents and occupational health, the report of the Labor Inspection and, where appropriate, the elaboration of a Royal Decree project that sets the applicable coefficient and the exact professional perimeter.
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Sources of the sector celebrate the political passage given in Congress, but admit that the calendar will depend on the progress of the technical file and the capacity of the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security to complete the reports and raise a norm with regulatory range.
Early retirement without penalty
The public pension system of Spain includes the reducing coefficients in the General Law of Social Security and developed by different real decrees that allows anticipating retirement without penalty in the amount when the nature of the work is exceptionally painful, dangerous or toxic and those risks cannot be eliminated even after applying preventive measures.
Social security recalls that, in general, the application of coefficients does not allow access to the pension with an age of less than 52 years, except for historical exceptions in special regimes. In all cases, the reduction time computes as quoted for the purposes of the percentage of the pension, but requires proving a minimum of years actually worked on the recognized positions.
Today they are part of this collective system such as the workers included in the Mining Statute, certain railways, the air work personnel, artists in priced conditions, bullfighting professionals, firefighters and different police forces (local, Ertzaintza, Mossos d’Esquadra or Foral Police of Navarra), each with its own rules and coefficients.
ERC’s claim is to incorporate into the petrochemical and refining chain to this relationship, accurately delimiting categories, shifts and tasks exposed to hazardous substances, nocturnality and intensive production rhythms.
Now, how will impact on the tensioning pension system is key, since Royal Decree 402/2025 and previous standards establish the neutrality of the system by means of an additional type of contribution for the beneficiary collective, in order to compensate for the advancement in the withdrawal and the increase in associated spending. This surcharge must be quantified in the economic memory and specify in the recognition norm itself, with distribution between companies and workers. In sectors already incorporated, the surcharge has been a necessary condition to close the actuarial balance.
From the labor point of view, the unions of the branch underline that, “although companies are obliged to minimize risks,” a residual risk that cannot be completely eliminated, which would justify a bonus in the retirement age persists. They cite as wear factors exposure to harmful substances and agents, turnicity and night work. The employer, meanwhile, usually warns of the costs added in contributions and the need for solid evidence before extending the mechanism to new groups.