Labor and Social Security Inspection in Spain: Roles and Services
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security in Spain
The Ministry of Labor was established in 1920, prompted by the significant political and social events of 1917, the enactment of the first major social legislation in 1919, and the legislative agenda expected due to the International Labor Organization (ILO) constitution. Labor Law in 1938 established the union as a service organization and state sanitation. Social Security falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. The sources are professional, regulatory, and administrative, particularly complex when they correlate with the concurrent organization of the Autonomous Communities.
Decentralized Organisms: These are purely instrumental agencies of the central organs of the Ministry but maintain their legal or administrative entity:
- INEM (National Institute of Employment)
- FOGASA (Wage Guarantee Fund)
- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at Work
The Inspectorate of Labor and Social Security
The Inspectorate of Labor and Social Security is a public service in Spain responsible for enforcing social order rules and enforcing accountability for infringements or breaches. In addition to the role of social police, ensuring respect for the rights and powers set out in law, the Inspector is called upon to develop, in his capacity as a legal practitioner partner in the work area, features information, advice, and warning to facilitate the social partners fulfilling their respective duties and obligations as well as conciliation, mediation, and arbitration in conflict or tense situations that occur in the field of labor relations.
The Labor Inspectorate attends to consultations, complaints, claims, or complaints submitted orally or in writing by citizens. The Labor Inspectorate was created by Royal Decree of March 1, 1906. Since that date, it has been entrusted with enforcing the emerging social legislation of the time (Workers’ Compensation Act of January 30, 1900, Law on Labor in Women and Children of March 13, 1900, Sunday Rest Act of March 3, 1904, etc.).
Inspection functions were regulated as early as 1909, and following the creation of the Ministry of Labor on May 20, 1920, a regional Inspectorate was established, which became provincial with the restructuring of the Ministry carried out in 1932.
Labor and Social Security Inspection (ITSS)
The Inspectorate of Labor and Social Security (ITSS), under the Secretary for Labor and Immigration – in accordance with the provisions of Law 42/1997 of November 14, Planning Inspectorate of Labor and Social Security and its implementing regulation approved by RD 138/2000 of February 4 and in the Ministerial Decree of February 12, 1998 – is the administrative organization responsible for public service monitoring and enforcement of the rules of social order. This includes services related to administrative responsibilities that employers and employees may incur and advice and information on labor and social security.
For the provision of services to citizens, the ITSS has a higher technical level of officials with national entitlement belonging to the Senior Corps of Inspectors of Labor and Social Security. They perform their duties with a mandate of strict adherence to the principles of technical independence, objectivity, and impartiality required by international conventions No. 81 and No. 129 of the International Labor Organization.
Inspection functions of support, collaboration, and management necessary for the exercise of the checks are carried out by officers of the Corps of Deputy Inspector of Employment and Social Security, with the same national rating.
ITSS Objectives
The ITSS Department assumes the basic objective of working towards voluntary compliance with labor obligations and Social Security of companies and workers. This is achieved through preventive and corrective actions or penalties, compliance requirements of social order rules, security arrangements, worker health, social security contributions, and similar items. It also includes reports of violations to impose sanctions and settlement records and other documents for the liquidation of social security contributions.
In certain work procedures in which the Labor Inspectorate participates (Regulation of Employment Records, Notice of opening of schools, etc.), the authorities will be considered the bodies determined by each Autonomous Community.
Main Services of the ITSS
Monitoring and Enforcement Services
These services monitor and enforce standards, laws, regulations, and the normative content of collective agreements. The areas of these services are:
- Labor relations and management
- Occupational risk prevention
- Regulations on scope, registration, affiliation, high and low workers, trading, and collecting social security fees
- Regulations on the collection and receipt of benefits from the Social Security system, as well as voluntary benefits or other supplementary agreements
- Regulations established on collaborative management of Social Security
- Regulations for placement, employment and unemployment protection, migration, and foreign labor, occupational training, employment agencies, recruitment agencies, and integrated employment services plans
Technical Assistance Services
- Information, assistance, and guidance to companies and workers, with the performance of the technical inspection role
- Assistance to institutions and social security agencies when requested
- Information, assistance, and collaboration with other relevant public administrations regarding the application of social order rules or the supervision and control of public aid and grants
- Preparation of technical reports at the behest of labor courts
Arbitration, Conciliation, and Mediation Services
In any case, the conduct of proceedings of the ITSS must be agreed upon by the parties affected by the labor dispute or strike.
Activities Arising from Services Rendered
- Requirements or warning acts when not directly deriving from workers
- Initiation of disciplinary procedures by extending infraction proceedings
- Initiation of liquidation procedures and debits to Social Security and joint collection items through liquidation proceedings
- Initiation of office procedures for business registration and high and low enrollment of workers in the Social Security scheme
- Initiation of procedures for the framework for companies and workers in the Social Security system
- Proposal before the competent bodies for the suspension or termination of benefits if it is found to be obtained or enjoyed in violation of the rules
- Proposal before the competent body of the surcharge on economic benefits in the event of an accident or occupational disease caused by a lack of safety measures and health at work
- Proposal of surcharges or reductions in insurance premiums for occupational accidents and diseases in the case of companies for their behavior in preventing health risks
- Immediate cessation of jobs or tasks for violating the regulations on the prevention of occupational hazards, to attend to a serious and imminent risk to safety and health
- Communication to the competent bodies for breaches in the implementation and use of grants and subsidies to promote employment, vocational training, and the promotion of social trade
- Formulation of claims before the Social Jurisdiction in accordance with applicable law