The Executive has recently approved in the Council of Ministers a Royal Decree that regulates early retirement in professions of special hardness or risk, establishing the criteria to apply coefficients to reduce the retirement age. The regulation, which will come into force in June, contemplates the creation of a working group on September 17, in charge of analyzing how this measure is applied in sectors with a high female presence.
Objective: to incorporate the gender dimension
According to the decree, this working group must evaluate the hardness, arduousness, toxicity and dangerousness of jobs from a gender perspective, to ensure that women in particularly demanding occupations can access early retirement on equal terms.
One of the entities that will participate, the Women’s Institute, has already issued a report in which it considers that, although the approved text represents a step forward, it is essential to include specific gender criteria in the evaluation of jobs. It demands that account be taken of how certain tasks – frequently feminized – involve physical, emotional and health burdens that have traditionally been undervalued in labor regulations.
Which professions could benefit?
Currently, the reduction coefficients are applied to sectors such as mining, firefighting or security forces, which are mostly male-dominated. With this revision, professions such as:
-
Home help assistants
-
Hospital cleaning workers
-
Health care in emergency services
-
Residential and geriatric care employees
All of them are occupations with high accident rates, physical overload and exposure to psychosocial risks, and which until now have not been officially recognized as particularly arduous professions for the purposes of early retirement.
Next steps
The working group will prepare a report with specific proposals to adapt the regulations, with the aim of correcting possible gender inequalities in access to early retirement. This report will be key to determine whether the Government will modify the Royal Decree before its definitive application.
Context
The measure is part of the policies of equality and improvement of working conditions promoted by the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security, together with the Ministry of Equality, as part of the commitments assumed in the National Strategy for Gender Equality in Employment 2023-2027.
