The qualification of permanent disability in first-degree silicosis

Abstract

The criteria for qualifying for a permanent disability in the case of workers affected by silicosis are determined by the Order of 15 April 1969, which establishes rules for the application and development of disability benefits in the General Social Security Scheme. The evolution of the legal system, both in terms of disability and prevention of occupational hazards, requires that these special assessment criteria be reviewed at least in terms of first-degree silicosis, for which the 1969 regulation excluded the possibility of qualifying for permanent disability, providing only for a change of job and, in the event of its impossibility, the termination of the employment relationship protected by a special unemployment benefit.
The interpretative route has made it possible to qualify for permanent disability, although at the cost of incorporating elements from outside the work – functional capacity binomial into the qualification process, altering the backbone of the disability qualification system in Spain for this specific disease. The analysis that is carried out concludes that such interpretative artifice is not necessary, and in addition, it implies an unjustified differentiated treatment, and therefore discriminatory, in relation to that which is dispensed for other diseases.