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In Spain there are many workers who, despite having an indefinite contract, are permanently discontinued. This means that they only work during a few months of the year or during seasonal times due to the company’s activity or if the worker wants it.
An example of discontinuous permanent workers could be those who work during an agricultural campaign, hospitality or tourism. That is, we are talking about hotel receptionists, waiters or agricultural laborers who work in the cherry or olive grove campaign.
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By not being able to work all year round, this creates a difference with the rest of the workers who do work all year round, for example, in access to Social Security benefits, such as retirement pension or permanent disability. For this reason, many wonder how having the status of a permanent, discontinuous worker affects contributions to Social Security.
Social Security explains on its website that, to access the retirement pension, the minimum contribution period is 15 years and they add that it will take into account “the entire period during which the worker has been registered with a discontinuous permanent contract.”
This is also stated in the General Social Security Law in its article 247 (can be consulted in this BOE) where it explains that for that period it will be “multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5”. To understand it, a day of registration being fixed discontinuous will actually be quoted as one and a half days.
Now, just as the rule provides this benefit, it also sets limits and establishes that these computable days can never exceed the number of calendar days of each year, that is, 365.
To better understand, a permanent discontinuous worker who has worked 200 days in the year will see 300 days counted as contributions (200 x 1.5), always within the limit of 365 annual calendar days. In this way, the worker is not penalized for the periods of inactivity inherent to his contract, in which he is discharged and does not accumulate effective contributions.
| Days actually worked per year | Days computed with the coefficient 1.5 |
|---|---|
| 100 | 150 |
| 150 | 225 |
| 200 | 300 |
| 240 | 360 |
| 250 or more | 365 (annual cap) |
This coefficient can be applied to retirement pensions, permanent disability and death and survival, but is not valid for temporary disability and birth and child care benefits.
How the retirement pension of discontinued employees is calculated
The multiplier coefficient of 1.5 for the days that you are registered with Social Security will also be applied in the coefficients to determine the percentage of the regulatory base to which you are entitled.
Article 248 of the General Social Security Law establishes that, to calculate the percentage to be applied on the regulatory basis of the retirement pension, the periods contributed by discontinuous permanent workers are multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5. Of course, with the limit that we have explained before, that the total number of days computed in each year cannot exceed the calendar days of that same year.
According to the current method for calculating the Social Security retirement pension and applying the periods quoted as a fixed discontinuous period of one and a half days quoted, the procedure would be as follows. To calculate the regulatory basishe would apply the dual system:
- Divide the last 300 contribution bases by 350.
- Divide the 302 highest bases among the last 304 by 352.33.
Based on this calculation, Social Security will apply a coefficient to all contribution bases, except the last 24, to reflect the effect of inflation, so that the oldest contributions do not lose purchasing power. Furthermore, workers with listing gaps They will be able to fill these gaps with fictitious bases of between 100% and 50% of the minimum base.
Once the regulatory base has been calculated, a percentage is applied that depends on the total time of years of contributions, which includes the contribution periods of discontinuous permanent workers. With 15 years of contributions you will be entitled to 50% of the regulatory base. From there, the percentage increases as follows:
- For each of the following 49 additional months, the regulatory base per month contributed will increase by 0.21%.
- For each of the remaining 209 months, 0.19% will be added per month of contributions.
In this way, for a worker to reach 100% of the retirement pension in 2026, they will have to prove 36 years and six months of contributions. Now, in 2027, it will change and 37 years of contributions will be necessary, as stated in Law 27/2011.