The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León has forced the National Institute of Social Security (INSS) to recognize the total permanent disability for its profession to a cleaner affected by multiple ailments among which was known as ‘failed back’ syndrome after the entity initially denied it. For the court, the worker’s pathologies, especially those that affect her back, are “objectively incompatible” with the tasks of her job. Therefore, it has confirmed its right to receive a life pension calculated on its regulatory base of 638.72 euros per month.
It all begins when the worker, as a personal cleaning profession, initiates a file of permanent disability in November 2022, after having exhausted a long period of medical leave that was extended since February 2021. In March 2023, Social Security denied its request for provision.
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Since social security did not prove him right, this worker decided to go to court. Thus, in the first instance, the Social Court No. 1 of Valladolid proved him right, recognizing the total permanent disability. Social Security, not being in accordance, presented an appeal for supplication before the Superior Court of Justice, which also proved the worker, that is, that he had the right to the pension.
Inability to the fundamental tasks of your profession
The social security appeal before the TSJ denounced an “improper application” of the law, but the court did not prove him right. The Chamber explained its decision based on the clinical picture presented by the worker: “Left ventricular hypertrophy with signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; COPD with severe obstruction; mixed adaptation disorder, with anxiety and depressed mood; and failed back syndrome.”
The magistrates highlight that these pathologies, and in particular those that affect the back, “are objectively incompatible with their continuity in that professional activity.” The Court reason that the cleaner work requires, in its ordinary performance, of “contribution of physical effort, moderate more maintained, continuous standing (static and dynamic), constant management of work tools … and adoption of forced trunk postures.”
Due to its limitations, the Chamber ends by saying that the worker can no longer assume these tasks “with minimal dedication and normality”, which fully justifies the recognition of total permanent disability.
Impossibility of performing the usual profession
The key to this judgment is that the Court considers that the worker’s ailments set prevents him from performing the fundamental tasks of his usual profession, which is precisely the definition of total permanent disability. This degree of disability is that “disabled the worker for the realization of all or of the fundamental tasks of said profession, provided that he can devote himself to a different one”, as stated in the transitory regulation of article 194 of the General Law of Social Security (it can be consulted in this BOE).
The judicial ruling is not based on a single disease, but on how the set of pathologies and its associated sequels decisively diminish the work capacity of the worker for her specific position. On the other hand, Social Security can review the permanent disability for aggravation or improvement and modify its degree, as stated in article 200 of the General Social Security Law.