By Pilar Garcia-Aguilera
Source: WTWCO.com
Spain boosts access to pension plans to support temporary workers and partial retirees, among others, and adds notice protections for workers facing dismissal due to a workplace closure.
Among other things, Law 668/2023 establishes implementing rules on sectoral tax-qualified simplified employment pension plans (planes de pensiones de empleo simplificados – PPESs); entitles temporary workers to participate in tax-qualified pension plans; allows partial retirees to continue to contribute to their plans until full retirement; and requires that where an employer becomes the sponsor of two or more pension plans as a result of a merger or acquisition, the plans must be consolidated as a single plan within 12 months. The regulatory framework for PPESs was established in July 2022 (see this Global News Brief – Spain: New tax incentives, sectoral pension and funding options). Separate legislation, Royal Decree 608/2023, creates a new six-month notice requirement for closures of workplaces involving the dismissal of 50 or more workers.