The Government is open to improving the pensions of forced retirees who return to work.

Social Security officials held another meeting this Monday with employers and unions within the framework of the social dialogue table on pensions. At this meeting, according to sources familiar with the discussions, government representatives agreed to discuss several improvements to the decree they are preparing to introduce new regulations for flexible retirement (where a retired worker decides to return to work part-time for a period of time and combines their salary with a portion of their pension). Among these improvements, the ministry is considering implementing a slight increase in pensions for workers who have retired early (with a pension cut) involuntarily, that is, after being fired.

The initial drafts regulating this type of retirement system specified that contributions made by retirees who partially returned to work would not count toward pension improvements or increased benefits for delayed retirement. Unions, on the other hand, demand that the benefit increase (which would result from recalculating the regulatory base) could affect all those who opted for flexible retirement. For the time being, according to the negotiation sources consulted, Social Security is only open to improving the benefits of forced early retirees.

The legal text, which runs parallel to the negotiating table, has already passed a public hearing, where it was submitted to public comments. Now, Social Security must assess these contributions, as well as those of employers and unions. The commitment is to resubmit a draft of the royal decree regulating this type of retirement at an upcoming meeting of the social dialogue table on pensions.

The department headed by Elma Saiz will submit the final draft text, including any contributions, to the Council of State and subsequently to the Council of Ministers. Once approved, it will be published in the Official State Gazette . Initially, the new terms of the flexible retirement (it appears to be reverting to its traditional name, although one of the drafts called it "reversible ") were planned to take effect three months after their publication in the Official State Gazette.

In addition to a possible pension increase for those forced to retire early, Social Security officials also reportedly expressed their willingness this Monday to consider changing the minimum working hours required for retirees returning to work. The latest draft royal decree established a part-time work range for these jobs of between 40% and 80%.

From then on, if the retiree who returns to work hours were between 60% and 80% of a regular full-time job, they would receive a proportional pension, improved by 20%. If they return to working hours between 40% and 60% of a full-time job, the resulting pension increase during this compatibility would be only 10%. However, unions believe that these workers should be able to work hours less than 40% of a full-time job, and this is something that Social Security could now reconsider.

The unions are also demanding an increase in the pension percentage from 10% to 20% during the period in which a job is combined with receiving part of the benefit.

Similarly, and according to sources involved in the negotiations, the Executive has also expressed its willingness to analyze the requirements it intended to impose on those already retired who decide to return to self-employment (the current flexible retirement regulations only allow this if they return to working as an employee). The initial draft did allow such self-employment, but with one limitation: not having been registered with the special regime for this group (RETA) for the five years prior to retirement.

For this group, a 20% pension increase was proposed, which these workers could combine with their self-employed income for the duration of their flexible retirement. However, unions have requested that, if the pension increase percentages for self-employed workers are ultimately increased, the same be applied to the self-employed.