New early-retirement procedure

Royal Decree 402/2025 of 27 May was published in the BOE on 28 May and came into force twenty days later, on 17 June 2025. It regulates the prior procedure for determining whether, in a given activity or occupation, earlier retirement through reduction coefficients should be allowed. It repeals Royal Decree 1698/2011, which governed this mechanism until now for arduous, toxic, dangerous or unhealthy work.

It is not a general reduction of the retirement age, but a channel for studying, group by group, whether working conditions and accident data justify a lower age. For companies, the interest lies in the fact that the procedure requires their participation through employers’ organisations, and in the fact that the reduction carries a contribution cost that is not small.

Who can start the procedure

The most representative employers’ and trade-union organisations may start it jointly when employees are involved. For self-employed work, the initiative of representative professional associations is needed, together with the employers’ and trade-union organisations. In public employment, the most representative trade unions together with the administration on which the group depends.

Individual workers have no standing, although the Ministry may start the procedure at the reasoned request of an entitled party in exceptional circumstances. This means that, for a company, the route is collective: if a sector believes that an activity meets the conditions, the application must be channelled through its representative organisations. A sector without active representative organisations would find it hard to promote an application, which reinforces the role of employers’ associations and trade unions in the field.

Stages and requirements

The application is electronic and identifies the activity in detail. Next the statistical representativeness of the group is analysed, a morbidity and mortality report is drawn up, non-binding reports are requested from the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work and the Labour Inspectorate, and an Evaluation Committee issues its report. After a ten-day hearing, a decision is made, within a maximum of six months; if there is no decision, the application is deemed rejected.

Coefficients apply only if the activity is arduous, toxic, dangerous or unhealthy, shows high morbidity or mortality rates and working conditions cannot be changed. Those who benefit must be registered, have effectively worked in the activity for the minimum period required and, in no case, may retire before the age of 52. The periods of certain sick leaves and permits count as time worked, and an application rejected for lack of arduousness can only be repeated after four years.

Costs and what to review

Applying reduction coefficients entails an additional contribution on the common-contingencies base, borne by the employer and the worker, or only by the worker in the case of the self-employed. The rate is set each year in the Budget Act. In addition, the early pension is not compatible with continuing in the same activity, and the coefficients are reviewed every ten years.

Everything is also pending a ministerial order creating the Evaluation Committee: the effects of the procedure begin when that order comes into force. Companies in sectors with arduous activities should follow the proposals of their employers’ organisations and estimate the possible cost, without taking the result for granted. If your company’s activity is among those that could be put forward, it is worth discussing it with the sector employers’ association before anything is filed. Consult your labour adviser on how it affects your workforce.

The new channel grants nothing by itself: it opens a procedure whose outcome will depend on the data.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.