Among the main data on the activity carried out by the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate (ITSS) in La Rioja during 2022, it highlights how within the Plan to Combat Fraud and Irregular Employment, it has been possible to regularize 1,000 Rioja and Rioja who leave the submerged economy.
The Government delegate in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz Nalda, and the Councilor for Autonomous Development, José Ángel Lacalzada Esquivel, presented this morning the activity balance of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate after the Autonomous Operational Commission of ITSS of La Rioja, of which members of the Autonomous Administration and the State are part.
Arraiz Nalda has highlighted “the usefulness of the ITSS as a public service by focusing on compliance with the rules governing employment, an aspect even more relevant after the approval of the labor reform because the Labor Inspection becomes a key piece to tackle temporality”.
Regarding the outdated employment, Arraiz Nalda explained that in a large number of cases the type of fraud detected does not derive from a lack of pure discharge, but from the sum of different phenomena, such as fraud by false self-employed workers in cooperatives (approximately 40%) and by the development of days longer than those listed in the contracts.
Likewise, the actions in the field of foreigners have focused, fundamentally, on the verification of work and residence permits and on the exploitation of foreign workers who do not have a work permit in Spain. Of the 49 actions carried out by the ITSS, 46 affected foreign workers have been detected, the majority violation (37 people) being the hiring of foreign workers without having previously obtained the corresponding authorization of residence and work.
With regard to non-compliances in the field of the irregular economy in the agricultural sector, ITSS’s actions have focused on the identification of workers who were providing services, mainly motivated by the following causes: detection of a phenomenon of documentary falsification and supplantation of personality and the lack of discharge in social security of workers who provide services in agricultural service companies.
Contracts
For his part, the Regional Development Councilor, José Ángel Lacalzada, has reported that a total of 1,743 Rioja workers have had their contracts regularized in 2022, some by converting them from temporary to indefinite and others by transforming them from discontinuous fixed to ordinary fixed.
In particular, the Labour Inspectorate managed to convert last year 1,531 temporary contracts to indefinite ones, 709 of them (63.87%) within the Plan of Clash against recruitment fraud launched in the autonomous community and 822 as a result of ordinary actions. Of the total number of contracts that were transformed from temporary to indefinite in 2022, 742 correspond to men and 789 to women.
Lacalzada has explained that the sectors with the highest number of conversions have been the manufacturing industry, construction, education, hospitality and commerce.
Likewise, as a result of this Shock Plan, 212 contracts went from discontinuous fixed to ordinary fixed last year, 95 men and 117 women.
The counselor has highlighted and recognized the “great work of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate. A body that in 2023 will continue with its objective of fighting job insecurity. An end in which the progressive governments of Sánchez and Andreu work together by allocating all the resources at our disposal to consolidate a stable, dignified and quality labor market.”
Lacalzada has reviewed the measures, as well as the innovative active employment policies, implemented by the Government of Spain and the Government of La Rioja in consensus with the Social Dialogue. “Because our joint objective is to continue with the good employment rates that allow us to confirm that with the Government of Concha Andreu in La Rioja there are currently more people working and the jobs are better due to stability. With these actions, we have managed to ensure that unemployment in La Rioja records the best data and the lowest unemployment rate in a month of January for 15 years. In fact, it should be noted that currently, with the Government of Concha Andreu in La Rioja we have 1,000 fewer unemployed and 4,000 more Social Security members.”
It is also important to note that 44 people with disabilities in La Rioja were integrated into the labor market in 2022 thanks to the inspection performance. This result was as a result of the campaign carried out by ITSS last year in companies in the autonomous community that employ 50 or more workers and that are obliged to have at least 2% working people with disabilities.
ITSS action and violations
In 2022, the ITSS carried out 2,666 visits in La Rioja, carried out 2,160 requests and lifted 1,232 infractions. The amount of the proposed infringements amounts to 5.1 million euros.
The delegate of the Government has detailed that of the total of the infractions, 288 correspond to the prevention of occupational risks. In this sense, the most common are those related to the safety of work machines and equipment and the lack of training and information to workers, with 42 infractions each of these paragraphs, and 37 related to the means of personal protection of workers.
In the period from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, the ITSS has investigated 5 fatal occupational accidents, 36 with serious injuries and 75 with minor injuries. Of the accidents with fatal victims, two were caused by blows of objects –door fall and fall of a tree in logging work-, one by road accident in mission -specific modality of work accident that occurs during the movement of the worker to a place different from the usual to carry out an activity entrusted by the company-, an accident in itinere and a heart attack.
With regard to violations in the area of employment and labor relations, the ITSS detected 137, the most common being those related to excessive working time (85), the normative violation of contracts (15), lower working conditions (13) and non-payment of wages (9).
Arraiz Nalda has commented that the high number of infractions per working time is a reflection of the inspection action that aims to favor the reduction of precariousness in employment. “La Rioja is characterized by being an autonomous community in which the irregular economy is reflected not so much in the lack of discharge as in the performance of working days higher than those established in the contract, fundamentally, in those that are part-time,” he added.
Special mention should be made of the inspection actions against non-payment and delays in the payment of salaries. In the period October 2021 to September 2022, as a result of the inspection action, it has been achieved that a total of 330,274.38 euros in La Rioja are paid to the workers of Rioja as salaries, without having to go to court, which are a result of the 178 actions carried out in labor matters, 45 requirements and 10 infractions.