The Ministry of the Interior has finally opened the administrative door to allow National Police and Civil Guard agents to retire early without suffering cuts to their retirement pension. In this sense, Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska confirmed this Wednesday in the Congress of Deputies that his department is already working on the application of “correction factors” that allow retirement without this economic penalty, thus responding to a historical and also necessary demand that seeks real equality with mossos d’esquadra, ertzainas and local police.
The Government’s strategy involves a technical solution that avoids the legal implications of the term “risk profession.” Although Marlaska insisted that this category “does not exist as such” in the regulations for these bodies, Interior will use the figure of “hardness”, that is, the same one that is used, for example, for miners. To this end, a work team has been established that will use the framework of the recent Royal Decree 402/2025, approved by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration (which was approved by Minister Elma Saiz with the social agents and unions), which regulates the reduction coefficients for groups subjected to particularly dangerous or toxic work.
You may be interested
Pilar Vaquerizo, forced to retire: “I have worked for 44 years and 314 days and I have been penalized 24%, enough is enough”
The Supreme Court confirms that early retirement due to objective dismissal is not “voluntary” and gives the right to maternity supplement
The pressure of data and the judicial process
The Executive’s movement responds to double pressure, these being street and judicial. While the Jupol and Jucil unions demanded the minister’s resignation in front of the Interior headquarters, denouncing “institutional abandonment,” the Unified Police Union (SUP) has made real progress in the courts. The Supreme Court has admitted a lawsuit against the Government that could benefit some 120,000 officials.
The crux of the conflict, beyond semantics, is economic and administrative. A large part of the staff of the State Security Forces belongs to the passive class regime, which until now prevented them from accessing retirement at age 59 under the same conditions as their regional counterparts, who contribute to Social Security and enjoy reducing coefficients of 20%. The Federal Police Union (UFP) has already formally requested to activate article 10.1.c of the new royal decree to correct this “unjustified discrimination.”
End the salary gap for police and civil guards
If it goes ahead, this measure would mean ending the labor gap between the state and regional forces. Marlaska recalled that agents already have a 40% salary improvement since 2018, but the unions warn that the equalization will not be complete until a dignified exit from active service is guaranteed, rejuvenating workforces subjected to growing operational tension.