Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Spain (Ratification: 1988)

Part III (Sickness benefit), Article 18, and Part VI (Employment injury benefit), Article 38, of the Convention. The Committee notes that in application of section 131(3) of the General Act on Social Security (LGSS), in the event of a strike or lockout, the worker is not entitled to cash benefit for temporary incapacity. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on how this provision is applied in practice, in particular by indicating the situation of workers whose incapacity to work, in the meaning of section 128 of the General Act on Social Security, occurred before the strike or lockout took place.

Part VI (Employment injury benefit), Article 36, paragraph 2. (a) In its report the Government indicates that workers whose degree of incapacity for their usual occupation exceeds 33 per cent but does not make it impossible for them to perform the basic tasks inherent in such an occupation shall be entitled to a lump-sum allowance, in accordance with Spanish legislation (General Social Security Act, section 139, paragraph 1). The Government adds that this incapacity is assessed by special teams for the handicapped within the National Institute of Social Security. The Committee notes this information. It requests the Government to provide additional information on the manner in which the assessment is carried out in practice, and in particular on the criteria used by the assessment teams.

(b) The Committee notes that section 8 of Act No. 24/1997 of 15 July has replaced the definitions of the various categories of invalidity by specifying that qualification for the various degrees of permanent incapacity shall be regulated on the basis of the percentage of the reduction in capacity for work. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the new regulatory provisions relating to the determination of the various degrees of incapacity have been adopted and, if so, to provide a copy of them.

Part XI (Standards to be complied with by periodical payments, Article 65). The Committee notes the Government's statement in its report that in defining a skilled manual employee, it referred to Article 65, paragraph 6(d), i.e. to a person whose earnings are equal to 125 per cent of the average earnings of all the persons protected. Consequently, the Committee hopes that the Government will be able to provide, in its next report, all the information requested in the report form under this Article of the Convention, not only in respect of the amount of the wage of a skilled manual employee, but also of the amount of the benefits to be paid to a typical beneficiary whose earnings are equal to the wage of a skilled manual male employee.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1998.]