2023-05-20 16:01:14
Los Spanish expatriate workers will be able to continue contributing to Social Security to maintain their labor and social rights and their future benefits. According to the new order that Social Security is preparing, workers employed by a Spanish company outside the borders that voluntarily decide to continue subject to Spanish labor law They may do so through a binding agreement between the company and the worker, by which they will request the General Treasury of the Social Security that the employee continue subject to the Spanish system. In this way, workers will continue contributing so as not to lose the benefits provided by this body, and to which all contributors, both current and future, are entitled, such as access to unemployment benefits or receiving a future retirement pension.
Ministerial sources have confirmed to LA RAZÓN that this regulatory change, which “is in the process of public hearing”, has to do with the intention of the Ministry so that separation from Social Security is not a reason for rejecting the offer of transfer to a job abroad, as was the case up to now, since employees with a date close to retirement -less than 10 years old- felt discouraged from accepting these positions. With current legislation, workers who move to third countries with a firm agreement on Social Security they were forced to disassociate themselves from the Spanish organization if their position abroad was prolonged over timeremaining under the auspices of the existing social protection system in the country to which they have been displaced.
To avoid temporary dysfunctions, the new order specifies that if the worker is already registered in the social system of the country in which they are posted, may request voluntary link to the Spanish Social Security within a period of six months from the entry into force of the order. Of course, the text details that the regulatory change “will not give rise to any right for a period prior to the date of its application”, which means that those expatriate workers who have already contributed to a system in a third country “will not be able to recover or transfer these contributions to the Spanish Social Security”. Therefore, those who have contributed outside the national system must claim any benefit to which they are entitled in the listed country, without any repercussions in Spain.
According to the draft of the new regulations to which Efe has had access, the Ministry headed by José Luis Escrivá wants expatriate workers who voluntarily choose to continue within the Spanish Social Security system to be able to maintain all “the rights granted by the protective action of said system”, especially the pension system. So, they would keep intact their options to receive “permanent disability and death and survival contributory pensions derived from common contingencies, as well as the contributory retirement pension.” This would apply in the case of countries where there is agreement between the Social Security systems. For workers who travel to countries without this consortium, they would have to pay contributions in the country of destination, but the Ministry intends that the protective action they receive in Spain be extended “to subsidies for temporary disability due to common or professional contingencies, for birth and care of a minor, for co-responsibility in the care of the infant, for the care of minors affected by cancer or another serious illness, and for risk during pregnancy and natural lactation”.
Therefore, this new ministerial order will allow expatriates -those who have a contract in a company with headquarters in Spain- to continue under the umbrella of Spanish legislation once the maximum travel period provided has expired, whose temporary space varies depending on the country of destination. A simple communication to the General Treasury will suffice to continue subject to Spanish legislation. This situation was already applicable to expatriate workers in countries where no instrument for coordinating Social Security systems is applicable, or when said workers “are not included within its subjective scope of application”. Now it is extended in all cases.
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