The Government wants to investigate 470,000 employment contracts next year and convert 80,000 fraudulent temporary contracts into permanent status through a new initiative with the aim of controlling labour fraud.
The work will be undertaken by the Autonomous State Agency for Labour and Social Security Inspection, which for the first time in its history has its own budget, valued at 175.8 million euros. The initiative was announced at the recent Congress of Deputies by the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey.
The Labour and Social Security inspectorate, like most government departments, saw its activity during 2020 affected by the pandemic. Workers carried out more than 100,000 inspections relating to the temporary employment payment (ERTE) and unemployment pay.
The department also carried out 116,189 inspections to control the protection of workers against the risk of contagion by COVID-19, 30,813 reports on ERTE and 2,876 inspections on the labour rights of workers linked to the pandemic.
In general, inspections during 2020 were hampered by the decrease in economic activity caused by the pandemic, the declaration of a state of alarm and the closure of companies due to ERTE, making it impossible for companies to properly comply with inspections.
Looking forward, one of the main objectives of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate for 2021 is to reduce fraud in part-time contracts, for which it plans to investigate 450,000 employee working situations.
The Inspectorate also wants to guarantee equality between women and men in the workplace, and will create a State Office for the Fight against Discrimination and increase checks on working time, compliance with wage regulations and potential gender discrimination.
Part of the budget includes a crackdown on false self-employed workers and inspectors also plan to carry out 87,000 visits to workplaces to assess risk prevention and workplace accidents.