The Labor and Social Security Inspectorate has already issued its verdict on the request from the road freight transport workers’ group to advance their retirement age. The request to establish coefficients that bring forward retirement (without pension cuts) is based on the high accident rate in the profession. And the agency’s ruling is favorable, given the difficulty in modifying the working conditions of the older workers in the group, according to the Road and Logistics sector of the Federation of Citizen Services (FSC) of the CC OO union, which reported this on Friday.
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The Inspectorate’s report adds to two others, also favorable to advancing truck drivers’ retirement, recently issued by the Directorate General for Social Security Regulation (DGOSS) and the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (INSST). With the content of these three documents, which are mandatory but not binding, the evaluation commission formed by the Ministry of Social Security will issue its own report, likely in September.
Among the report’s conclusions, as highlighted by FSC-CC OO, the Inspectorate confirms the need to implement reducing coefficients for the retirement age of truck drivers due to “the implicit complexity involved in being able to carry out modifications that result in minimizing the hardship, toxicity, danger and/or unhealthiness of the working conditions of the driving staff of road freight transport companies.”
Additionally, they highlight that “in ten of the professional requirements analyzed out of a total of 26, it has been considered in most of the inspection actions carried out that there is indeed exposure to the risk factor.”
With the three reports, the mentioned evaluation commission, made up of 11 members (seven from the Government, two from the unions, and two from the employers’ associations) has one month to decide. But this group will issue only a recommendation, as the final decision will correspond to the officials of the Ministry of Social Security.
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CC OO emphasizes that the Inspectorate’s report focused on a sample of companies with an average workforce of 250 people, so the study does not accurately reflect the reality of working conditions in the entire sector, where 96% of companies have fewer than 10 workers. Therefore, it considers that the new analysis “offers an improved picture of reality,” since drivers’ conditions tend to be better in large companies than in smaller ones.
In any case, the union assures that they expect no other response than, like the three reports known to date, a ratification of the recommendation to implement reducing coefficients for the retirement age of road freight drivers.
Early retirement without pension cuts in the most arduous professions with the highest volume of medical leaves and accident rates consists of establishing coefficients that recognize a longer contribution period for each year contributed. In return, higher social contributions are paid. Currently, there are already a good number of professions that can opt for this early retirement modality: mining workers; some maritime categories; flight personnel of aerial work (except cabin crew); some railway workers; bullfighting professionals; members of the Ertzaintza; local police; Mossos d’Esquadra, Navarra’s Foral Police, and forest and environmental agents of public administrations.