Employees in any Social Security Scheme, as well as shareholder-workers or workers who work for cooperatives in the terms of  Article 215 of the LGSS, who are 60 years old and meet the other required conditions to be eligible for the Social Security contributory retirement pension, may access partial retirement in the following terms:

Partial retirement without relief contract:

• Minimum age: the ordinary age  of retirement which is applicable in each case (actual years, without applying retirement age reduction coefficients).

• They can be hired for a full-time or part-time working day.

• The working day is reduced: understood to be between a minimum of 25% and a maximum of 50%. The reduction in working hours can be up to 75% in cases where the relief worker is contracted on a full-time basis under an indefinite contract (art. 215.2.c LGSS 2015).
  

• Minimum contribution period: 15 years, 2 of which must be included within the 15 years prior to the causal event.

• Length of service in the company: not required.

• Relief contract: not required.
   

Partial retirement  with relief contract:

Whenever  a hand-over contract is entered into simultaneously in the stipulated terms in Article 12.7 of the Workers’ Statute (WT), full-time workers may access partial retirement when they meet the following requirements:

• They must be hired for a full-time working day. Hired, part-time individuals whose working days, in all, are equivalent in theoretical days to those of a comparable full-time worker are included whenever they meet, in different jobs, the requirements of seniority, working day reduction, and replacement hire.

• That a hand-over contract is simultaneously entered into.

• Minimum age (without applying retirement age reductions):
   
  • They are members of a Mutual Insurance Society, 60 years - actual age.
  • If they are not members of a Mutual Insurance Society, this age requirement will be applied gradually, from 2013 to 2027, based on the contribution periods:
    
    
    

    Year of the causal event	Required age according to contribution periods at the time of the causal event		Required age with 33 years contributed at the time of the causal event
    2013	61 and 1 month	33 years and 3 months or more	61 and 2 months
    2014	61 and 2 months	33 years and 6 months or more	61 and 4 months
    2015	61 and 3 months	33 years and 9 months or more	61 and 6 months
    2016	61 and 4 months	34 years or more	61 and 8 months
    2017	61 and 5 months	34 years and 3 months or more	61 and 10 months
    2018	61 and 6 months	34 years and 6 months or more	62 years
    2019	61 and 8 months	34 years and 9 months or more	62 and 4 months
    2020	61 and 10 months	35 years or more	62 and 8 months
    2021	62 years	35 years and 3 months or more	63 years
    2022	62 and 2 months	35 years and 6 months or more	63 and 4 months
    2023	62 and 4 months	35 years and 9 months or more	63 and 8 months
    2024	62 and 6 months	36 years or more	64 years
    2025	62 and 8 months	36 years and 3 months or more	64 and 4 months
    2026	62 and 10 months	36 years and 3 months or more	64 and 8 months
    2027 and subsequent years	63 years	36 years and 6 months	65 years

    
    
  • If they are not members of a Mutual Insurance Society and are affected by temporary provision four, section 5, of the LGSS, the real age of 61.
    
• Working day reduction:
  
  
  • This reduction shall be between a minimum of 25% and a maximum of 50%, or 75% if the hand-over contract is for a full-time working day and indefinite, whenever the other requirements are met. These percentages shall be understood as referring to the working day of a comparable full-time worker.
    
  • In cases in which Final temporary provision four, section 5 is applicable,the working day reduction shall be between a minimum of 25% and a maximum of 75%, or 85%  if the relief contract is for a full-time working day and indefinite.
    
• Minimum contribution period:
  
  • 33  years of effective contributions, without the proportional part of extra pay being taken into account. For these exclusive purposes, only the mandatory military service provision or alternative service provision period will be calculated, with the maximum limit of 1 year.
     
  • 30 years of effective contributions, without the proportional part of extra pay being taken into account, nor the mandatory military service provision or alternative service provision period for those to whom temporary provision four, section 5 is applicable.
    
  • 25 years, in the case of individuals with disability  at a degree equal to or greater than 33% starting on 01-01-2013.
    
• Length of service in the company: at least, 6 years immediately prior to the partial retirement date. For that purpose, the seniority established in the previous company shall be calculated if a company change has been mediated in the terms in Article 44 of the ET or in companies belonging to the same group.
  
• Contribution during partial retirement:

From 01-04-2013, and only in cases where paragraph 5 of the fourth transitional provision isnot applicable, during the period of partial retirement, the company and the worker will pay the contribution basis that would have applied had the worker continued to work full-time.

The contribution basis during partial retirement shall be applied gradually according to the percentages calculated on the full-time contribution basis in accordance with the following scale:

• In 2013, the contribution basis shall be equivalent to 50% of the contribution base which would have corresponded to the full-time working day. 
• For each year after 2014, this percentage shall increase 5% until reaching 100% of the contribution basis which would have corresponded to a full-time working day.
• In no case, the set contribution basis percentage for each financial year in the previous scale may be less than the actually performed work activity percentage.

Characteristics of the part-time contract of the retiring worker:

• It shall be formalised in a written document using the official form.

• The elements of the part-time contract must be included  therein, in addition to the working day that  the worker previously worked and that which is a consequence of the reduction of  his/her working day.

• Entering into the contract shall not entail a loss of acquired rights and the seniority which corresponds to the worker.

Characteristics of the hand-over contract:

• It shall be entered into with an unemployed worker  or a worker who entered into a fixed-term contract with the company.

• It shall be formalised in a written document using the official model and, therein, the name, age and professional circumstances of the replaced worker must be included in addition to the characteristics of the job the replacement is going to carry out.
  
• The replacement worker’s job may be the same as the replaced worker. In all cases, the replacement and partial pensioner contribution bases must correspond so the base corresponding to the replacement worker may not be less than 65% of the average of the contribution bases which correspond to the last 6 months of the partial retirement pension regulating base period.
  
  For those to whom temporary provision four, section 5 of the LGSS is applicable, the replacement worker’s job may be the same as the replaced worker’s or similar, understanding this as carrying out tasks which correspond to the same professional group or equivalent category.
  
  In cases in which, due to the specific requirements of the work carried out by the partial pensioner, his/her job may not be the same or similar to the one the replacement worker is going to carry out, both contribution bases must correspond so the basis of the replacement worker may not be less than 65% of the basis the worker accessing partial retirement used to contribute.

• It shall be of indefinite duration or, as minimum, equal to the time the replaced worker lacks to reach the ordinary retirement age  required in each  case.  If, once reaching that age, the partially retired worker continues at the company, the hand-over contract which was entered into for a fixed duration may be extended by an agreement of the parties for periods of one year, terminating, in all cases, when the period corresponding to the year in which the replaced worker completely retires ends.
  
  Starting from 01-04-2013 and only in cases in which temporary provision four, section 5 of the LGSS is  not applicable, when  the working day is reduced by up to 75% and therefore the relief contract is indefinite and full-time, this must reach at least a duration equal to the result of adding 2 years to the time the replaced worker lacks to reach the ordinary retirement age.
  
  In the case of the partially retired worker after having reached the retirement age required in each case, the duration of the relief contract which may be entered into by the company to replace the part of the working day left vacant by it may be indefinite or yearly. In this second case,  the contract shall be automatically extended for periods of one year, terminating, in all cases, when the period corresponding to the year in which the replaced worker completely retires ends.
  
• It may be entered into for a full-time or part-time working day. In any case, the length of the working day should be at least equal to the reduction in working days agreed by the replaced worker. The working hours of the replacement worker may complete that of the replaced worker or simultaneously with the replaced worker.