Social Security: Benefits and Health Assistance

Social Security Benefits

• The document outlines information about social security benefits and conflict management.

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Assistance

• Provided to ensure the conservation and restoration of health, and the physical rehabilitation of individuals included in the Social Security system.
• Includes primary care, specialized attention, and pharmaceutical provisions.
• Offers complementary benefits such as orthoprosthetic services, health transportation, oxygen therapy at home, and information and documentation services.
• Offers information and documentation services and care such as service information, processing documentation, high reports, medical certificates of birth, death, etc.

Temporary Disability

• Lack of income during the period unable to work due to a disease or accident that requires health assistance.
• The maximum temporary disability period is 365 days, extendable by 180 days if determined by the National Institute of Social Security as potentially dischargeable within that period.
• One must be affiliated with Social Security, in being active or in similar status.
• Common illness requires a minimum contribution of 180 days in the last 5 years, while professional sickness or work accident does not require a minimum contribution period.
• For common illness and non-work accident:
• The first three days = €0.
• 60% from day 4 to day 20.
• 75% from day 21 onwards.
• In case of work accident and occupational disease, 75% is provided from the base salary from the day following the leave.

Permanent Disability

• It's a situation where a worker, medically discharged, has severe functional reductions that decrease or nullify their ability to work.
• Several degrees exist:
• Partial permanent disability: Reduction exceeding 33% for work tasks, but other tasks can be performed. The worker must be registered with Social Security and have contributed for 1,800 days in the last 10 years.
• Permanent total disability for the usual profession: The worker cannot perform fundamental tasks of their usual profession and must be registered with Social Security to be entitled to the benefit.
• Permanent absolute disability: Incapacitates the worker from performing any occupation or profession. To be entitled to the benefit, the worker must be registered with Social Security, unless the disability arises from a common contingency and the worker has contributed for a minimum of 15 years.
• Major Disability: The worker cannot perform any occupation and needs assistance from another person. The requirements to be entitled to this benefit are the same as for permanent absolute disability.

Additional benefits

• Birth and care of a minor equals to 16 weeks for each parent.
• Risk during pregnancy and lactation also benefits.
• Care for minors affected by cancer or another serious illness which equals up to 23 years of the minor.
• Retirement age will transition from age 65 in 2013 to 67 by 2027, through a phased increase of 1 month per year until 2018 and 2 months per year from 2019 to 2027.
• In the event of Death and survival, Benefits exist for widowhood and orphanhood, along with a death allowance of €46.50.
• Unemployment benefits (SEPE).

Organization and Work Teams

• Businesses need to organize themselves efficiently to achieve objectives in a dynamic environment to which they must adapt.
• According to Mintzberg, companies are organized into five departments.
• Strategic peak: Directors of the organization.
• Middle line: Organizers and supervisors.
• Operations core: Workers.
• Technostructure: Processes of the organization.
• Support staff: Specialized personnel.

Business Organization Models

• Taylorism: work divided in different sequences and record time, achieving specialization of workers, who are paid by productivity.
• Japanese model or Toyotism: idea of flexible work and increased productivity through management and organization by "just in time" along with work combined

New Work Organization Environments

• These structures are influenced by employment of contracts and subcontracts, labor flexibility, knowledge evolution, internationalization of activities, telecommuting; life balance, mobility, and multicultural environment.

Work Teams

• People unite for common links where work as a team involves individual efforts resulting in achievement of success.
• This involves obtaining information, new ideas, improving efficiency, and resolving conflict, as well as promoting creativity to result in synergy.

Communication and Assertiveness

• Involves the speaker coding a message that is decoded by the receptor, plus feedback and context for active listening.
• Elements like semantic, physical and psychological can impact

Types of Work Teams

• Teams can be classified by duration (permanent / temporary), structure (formal, informal), openness to members (open, closed), hierarchy (horizontal, vertical), or classifications by Robbins (problem solving, self-directed, interfunctional)

Leadership Styles

• Can be exercised in different ways:
• Autocratic: The leader gives orders and organizes without allowing input from others
• Liberal: The leader gives workers almost full freedom to do what they consider appropriate
• Democratic: The leader is more of a coordinator, giving orders but allowing space for workers to contribute

Team Members

• Three types of people can be members:
• Negative: Members who try to take most advantage for their own personal benefit and don't consider other members nor the teams objectives
• Passive: Employees who do not express their opinions or give ideas to improve based on lack of effort/engagement.
• Positive: Members who are interested in the team's objectives, actively participate providing inputs, and maintain a positive attitude

Teamwork Techniques

• Brainstorming: Free expression of ideas in a group about a subject or problem. The leader extracts the highest quality and originality.
• Role-playing/dramatization: Team members assume a role based on a script to present in group to discuss ideas on the situation.
• Phillips 66: Group divided into small groups of 6. Each group has a coordinator and a secretary, analyzes the same problem, and secretaries report the conclusions after 6 minutes.
• Simultaneous Dialogues: All participants dialogue in pairs to discuss a topic or problem for 10 minutes.
• Projects: Refers to the formulation and design in small groups of a project relating to a possible scenario

Group Formation Stages

• Formation, conflict, resolution, production, and termination are the stages of a group.

Workers' Representation

• The legislation covers the right to unionize.

Right to Unionize

• It includes the right to found unions, join a union of one's choice, form confederations and union organizations, and not be forced to join. Exemptions to the right to unionize exist for judges, magistrates, prosecutors, Armed Forces and Institutions.

Union and Business Organizations

• Article 7 of the Spanish Constitution elevates unions and employer associations to an institutional basis.
• Unions are permanent and non-profit organizations formed by employees who work for others in order to defend their financial and social interests.

Employers Associations

• The representativeness of these associations is measured by the number of companies and workers they represent.
• These in Spain are the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises.

Worker Representation Through Employee Statute (ET)

• Employees of a company elect their representatives through free, personal, and direct suffrage.
• Representation can take the form of either unitary or union representation bodies.
• Unitary representation include staff delegates and work councils.
• Union representation include union sections and delegates

Staff Delegates and Work Councils

• The functions and rights of personnel delegates and work councils are the same.
• In companies or work centers with 10 to 49 workers, employee representatives are the staff delegates.
• In companies with over 50 workers, they must elect a work council.
• Union delegate represent a specific union's interests, focus on defending employees' rights in the company, independently of affiliation to the union.
• Spanish legislation are built upon the Organic Law of Freedom and the Statute of Workers and Labour.

Forms of Representation

• Can be through sindicates or though unit representation.

Terms of Workers

• Number of representatives increases with workers, likewise with the hours for unions.

Rights of Worker Representatives

• The rights include to be informed quarterly on matters such as industry evolution, company financial situation, new contract forecasts, absenteeism and accident statistics, etc.
• Right to access annual accounts.
• Right to get copies of contracts.
• Right to publish reports on restructuring, working hour reductions, strategic processes, training plans, and control systems.

Roles for worker's Representatives

• Ensure compliance with current labor, social security, and employment standards.
• Monitor working conditions, and health in job development.
• Seek equal and fair treatment between workers
• Ensure that conventions and laws are followed

Rights of worker's Representatives

• Guarantees for worker's representatives include the opening of records, priority in the company, no sanctions within a year of serving the role, to express opinions freely and the right to credit for monthly paid hours.

Bargaining and collective agreement

• Collective Agreements regulate matters affecting working conditions, and relations between worker and and its organizations relating to and that for the company and its own.
• Including setting items relating to contract, scope, and procedures

Labor Disputes

• Labor disputes are classified based on the identity of the affected parties and the subject matter of disputes.
• Affected parts which include individual (worker against employer) and on interests.
• Matters that cause the conflict include Legal such like State regulation and interest matters.

Strikes

• Spanish Constitution recognizes the right to strike (art. 28.2) per Royal Decree related to labour.
• The workers can call it through any of their representatives.
• Agreement communicated to the employer and to the authorities, with five natural days in advance.
• Some services require 10 natural days
• Limitations exist for political issues.

Strike Effects

• Exercising the right to strike does not end the employment relationship or give rise to sanctions.
• The enforcement of the strike suspends a contract- The worker is only entitled to receive payments.
• The employer cannot change the striking for other not linked to company.
• The workers can do publicity.

Lockouts

• Consists of temporal closure from the work labor from the part of the emplyer, as long some the cause happens.
• The entrepreneur must report this to the Authorities with 12 hours.
• The time extends until the causes happen.

Dispute Resolutions

• Collective, legal and interests are always solved by agreement of the parts, like, reconciliation, mediation, and arbitration.
• Conciliation Parties reach agreements thanks of a third part helps to the negotiation (No proposals are made)
• Mediation: Parties set the mediators who will intervene, and that one will give possible solutions.
• Arbitration: Parts agree with a third person will take a linked decisions.