Social Security

General Considerations

The General Social Security Act establishes that, in those Social Security Regimes in which it is so required, Special Systems can be established exclusively in one or any of the following areas: inclusion, affiliation, contribution payment methods or collection.

These Special Systems were created in the General Regime, therefore, they are governed by the common regulations of the General Regime, with the exception of the peculiarities specifically established in each one of them.

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Intermittent-permanent workers employed by market and public opinion studies companies

This Special System shall include market and public opinion studies companies in relation to their intermittent-permanent employees who perform surveying tasks.

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Intermittent-permanent workers employed by cinemas, dance-halls, night-clubs, and discotheques

This Special System is applicable to companies devoted to film showings, dance-halls, discotheques, night-clubs, and other premises designed for analogous spectacles, in relation to the members of their staff who do not work every day of the week.

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Handling and packing of fresh tomatoes, performed by exporter-harvesters

This special system is applicable to fresh tomato exporter-harvester employers, and to the casual or seasonal workers at their service, who are exclusively devoted to handling and packing fresh tomatoes designed for exportation, during the official season.

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Extraordinary hotel industry services

This special system was exclusively created for the provinces of Madrid and Barcelona by Order of 10th September 1973.

Its effectiveness entailed a collaboration agreement between the old National Welfare Institute and the also expired Provincial Hotel Industry Union. Said agreement was never signed in the province of Barcelona; consequently, the special system was never applied.

In the province of Madrid, the subscribed agreement was denounced in the year 1993; nevertheless, from that date the Employment Institute, the  State Employment Public Service collaborated with hotel industry employers in recruitment and training tasks for workers in this branch of activity, as well as in the formalities to process affiliations and terminations of affiliation to the Treasury General of the Social Security.

The competencies assumed by the Employment Institute, the  State Employment Public Service, in Madrid, have been transferred to the corresponding Autonomous Community services.

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Resin industry

This Special System shall include all the companies devoted to the exploitation of pine groves for obtaining pine resin and the mountain workers who extract and collect resin at the service thereof.

For purposes of this Special System, for the above-mentioned workers the seasons shall have the following duration:

• Resin extraction: From 1st March to 15th November
• Resin collection: From 1st June to 1st October.
  

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Fruits, vegetables and canned vegetable industry

This Special System shall include those companies devoted to the handling, packing, and marketing of fruits and vegetables and the manufacturing of vegetable canned products, and the workers at the service thereof, whatever the anticipated duration of their employment contracts, and provided that their activities are conducted in an intermittent or cyclic manner.

The activities of the companies to which this Special System is applicable shall organise themselves in seasons that shall start on 1st January and end on 31st December of each year. However, the affected companies may request, on grounds, the modification of the season's contemplated starting and ending dates.

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Agricultural

Con efectos 1 de enero de 2012 los trabajadores del Régimen Especial Agrario se incluyen dentro del Régimen General de la Seguridad Social, mediante la creación del Sistema Especial Agrario.

Employed workers who carry out agriculture, forestry or livestock work or who are supplementary to or assist in these tasks, on farms, as well as the employers to whom they provide their services, are included in this Special System.

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Domestic Employees

Included People

This Special System shall include as domestic employees all workers, whatever their sex and marital status, who meet the following requirements:

• Over 16 years of age.
• They exclusively render domestic services for one or more heads of household, or a group of people that, although not a family, live together as a family in the same house.
• These services are rendered at the house where the head of household and the other persons who make up the household reside.
• They receive a wage or compensation of whatever type for this service.

Spanish domestic employees who reside abroad, at the service of State diplomatic and consular representatives and civil servants, officially posted outside of Spain, may apply for inclusion within this Special Scheme, which shall be granted as long as they fulfil the other remaining requirements.

Excluded People

• Relatives of the head of household by blood or affinity up to the second degree, except for female relatives of celibate priests who live with them.
• Legally or de facto adopted or foster children.
• Persons who render friendly, benevolent, or good-neighbourly services.
• Motor vehicles drivers at the service of private persons, and persons rendering gardening and childcare services when such activities do not form a part of the set of domestic tasks.

From 1 January 2012, workers included in the Special Scheme for Domestic Employees have been included in the General Scheme, through the creation of the Special System for Domestic Employees.

This inclusion affects both workers who provide services permanently for one head of household, and so called "intermittent" workers who work for several heads of household.

Inclusion in the Special System is structured around the existence of a head of household, who must have a Contribution Account Code, to which the head of household must assign the person who provides them services as an employee.

A transitional period from 01/01/2012 to 30/06/2012 has been provided for, so that during this time employers and employees in the Special Scheme for Domestic Employees of the Social Security can inform the General Treasury of the Social Security of their fulfilment of the necessary conditions for inclusion in the Special System for Domestic Employees.

The effects of this notification shall start on the 1st day of the month after that in which the application has been submitted.

On 30/06/2012, if the fulfilment of said conditions has not been reported, domestic employees who provide part-time or intermittent services will be excluded from said System and therefore no longer have active contributor status in the General Scheme.

 

 

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