The new Strategic Plan of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate establishes the priority lines of inspection action for the years 2025-2027, defined by 10 objectives (such as detecting fraud in recruitment or contributions, bringing undeclared employment to the surface, controlling working hours, or guaranteeing the rights to equality and inclusion and health and safety). Knowing them is essential for companies so that they can review their degree of compliance in the priority areas of action.
On September 12, the agreement of the Council of Ministers approving the Strategic Plan of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate 2025-2027 was published in the Official State Gazette.
The essential content of the plan includes objectives relating to inspection activity and the organization and operations of the body itself. We will in turn focus on the 10 objectives that define the priority lines of action of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate (ITSS, for its acronym in Spanish) for the coming years:
- Guarantee labor rights. Inspection actions will be intensified to (i) control of employment contract use, paying special attention to compliance with the formal requirements and content of employment contracts; (ii) the detection of fraud in temporary contracts or in the use of permanent-discontinuous contracts; (iii) the detection of abuses due to the termination of contracts for not passing the probationary period when its purpose is to circumvent the indefinite nature of the employment contract; (iv) monitor the correct application of the collective agreement in the framework of contracts and subcontractors, as well as the demand for responsibilities in the event that, behind the formal appearance of contracts and subcontractors, illegal assignments of workers are carried out; and (v) guarantee the right to a salary, controlling the payment of the correct salary and the payment of the corresponding Social Security contributions.
Special focus is placed on guaranteeing the right to rest and the limitation of the working day (overtime and complementary hours, irregular distribution of the working day or digital disconnection), through the detection, correction and demand of responsibilities for the commission of irregularities in this area.
- Guarantee the rights of the workers’ legal representatives. Campaigns aimed at ensuring the collective rights of employees and their representatives are envisaged, strengthening the role of the ITSS in collective disputes and strikes and in the event of violations of the rights of these representatives.
- Guarantee the right to safety and health. Action plans will be developed to combat the most common forms in which fatal and serious accidents at work occur; actions will be planned in feminized sectors with under-reporting of occupational contingencies and in which there is a high number of sick leaves due to common contingencies, and in sectors of activity and companies with higher accident rates; control of compliance with health surveillance obligations will be intensified; and actions in terms of exposure to carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic agents.
- Ensure equality and inclusion. Inspection activity will be increased to monitor the impact of the use of new technologies in the field of equal treatment and non-discrimination; actions will be carried out to ensure compliance with the obligation to have the set of resources and measures planned for equal treatment and non-discrimination of LGBTI people; compliance with the quota for the reservation of job positions for people with disabilities; and discrimination on the basis of racial and ethnic origin, as well as age, will be fought against.
- Guarantee the effective application of the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination on grounds of sex and the adequate integration of the gender perspective in inspection activities. Actions aimed at combating sexual and gender-based harassment at work will be reinforced, and special attention will be paid to verifying that the obliged companies draw up and implement an equality plan.
- Ensure compliance with the regulations on the promotion and protection of employment. The ITSS will intensify actions to ensure compliance with employment regulations in all areas. Among them, possible biases and stereotypes that lead to discrimination in access to employment, both in job offers and in the selection processes themselves, will be monitored; the correct application of rebates and other aid for the promotion of employment or on-the-job training will be controlled; and it will fight against fraud in unemployment benefits, seeking to fight against false registrations in Social Security, undue increases in contribution bases and terminations of employment relationships that cover up voluntary terminations to access unemployment benefit.
- Emerge employment with rights. The ITSS will cross-reference tax and Social Security information data to surface undeclared employment on digital platforms or with respect to false self-employed workers. Fraud in the use of part-time contracts consisting of the declaration of working hours much less than those carried out will also be pursued.
- Eradicate cases of extreme precariousness and forced labor. The work of the ITSS in combating these situations will be intensified.
- Inspection activity in the field of Social Security. Fraud in contributions and benefits will be fought against, as well as compliance with formal obligations in the field of Social Security, and the correct application of contribution benefits will be controlled.
- Promote decent work and social justice outside Spain. International cooperation will be strengthened to guarantee employees’ rights and combat international fraud.
It is in the best interest of companies to carry out an introspection exercise to review the degree of compliance with the regulations in the various priority areas listed and adapt where deficiencies are observed.
