Hundreds of people took to the streets of Madrid on Saturday, demanding the introduction of reduction coefficients for a fair retirement among large sections of Spain's working class.
The mechanism of reduction coefficients applies in Spain to workers in sectors that have high levels of hardship, ill health, mortality, or toxicity. However, demonstrators defend that the list of occupations should be expanded, for example, to include firefighters, and workers in the asbestos, iron, petrochemical, and heat and power sectors, among others.
"There is a Royal Decree already approved for several years which must be applied to reducing coefficients for retirement, and the Government has it locked in a drawer and is not paying attention to it," an activist said.
"That Ministry does not comply with a Royal Decree in which it says that we can benefit from a reduction in the retirement age, based on the danger and hardship of our type of work. This demonstration today, this vindication is mainly for that, so that the Ministry complies with its own laws", explained another demonstrator.
In November 2011, the Spanish government approved a Royal Decree that regulates the legal regime and general procedure for setting reduction coefficients and projecting retirement age without financial loss.
(Source: Ruptly)