Interview with Ricardo Gabaldón, president of the General Council of Official Colleges of Social Graduates
Fraternidad-Muprespa strengthens its relationship with an important group with which it has been working side by side for years. These are representatives of the Official Colleges of Social Graduates, professionals specialized in labor law and Social Security, in addition to being deeply knowledgeable in the socio-labor and economic area. The bilateral collaboration established has been based on a series of interviews with which, from the Mutua, we give voice to both these professionals and advisors who have detailed the day-to-day work of their work and the importance of the functions they perform.
The first interview features Ricardo Gabaldón, president of the General Council of Official Colleges of Social Graduates since February 2019, who describes in this talk the transcendent function they carried out during the pandemic for the management of numerous benefits, a task in which they always had the close collaboration of the Mutual Collaborators with the Social Security, and more specifically, with Fraternidad-Muprespa.
Ricardo Gabaldón was the head of the Official College of Social Graduates of Valencia between 2005 and 2017. He also held the vice-secretary of the Professional Union of Valencia and was a member of the Justice Observatory of the Generalitat Valenciana. He holds the Distinguished Cross of the First and Second Class of the Order of San Raimundo de Peñafort and was awarded the Aequitas Prize awarded by Cograsova in 2017.
Can you tell us what is the role of the General Council of Official Colleges of Social Graduates of Spain that you chair? And what instruments does the Council have to fulfill that role?
The General Council of Official Colleges of Social Graduates of Spain is the Public Law Corporation that represents, coordinates and defends the profession and the Colleges at the national and international level. Our Corporation is endowed with its own legal personality and full capacity to fulfill its purposes.
The General Council of Colleges also has a consultative, regulatory and promoting mission of the profession, along with a deontological function that without a doubt is a guarantee for citizens and for the administration of the State, a security that is beneficial for society in general as it is a regulated profession
It is also our responsibility to organize, on a national and international basis, any teachings, courses, seminars, conferences or any other similar activity aimed at training, improvement and professional retraining, as well as to collaborate with the Administration for these purposes to the extent necessary.
Our institutional relationship with the Ministries, mainly with the portfolios of Labor, Social Security and Justice, to deal with issues and initiatives aimed at improving the organization and functioning of our professional activity with the Administration, all of which has a benefit for the citizen.
If we talk about instruments, up to a total of 16 technical commissions have been established (*). How do they work? Is there any that you want to highlight due to its importance?
The technical commissions that are constituted in the General Council are all born due to a crucial need for our profession.Apart from the institutional relations commissions with the ministries, other work commissions have been established for very important issues such as mediation, equality, human resources, social security, etc.., activities in which our group must advance by leading them.
All these commissions are created in the plenary session and are made up of members who are truly experts in the subjects and I can assure you that their role is fundamental for the development and advancement of the profession. They are an essential piece within our organizational chart.
The Council is made up of 43 schools, which in turn currently host more than 22,000 members. What is your relationship with schools? And with the referees?
The General Council maintains an excellent relationship with the 43 Schools that make up this Corporation. For the future and progress of our profession it cannot be any other way. In our organization, the importance of the Colleges does not depend exclusively on their size but on the extraordinary work that each one of them develops in their area. All Colleges and all Members are equally important and necessary, sharing the same needs and concerns. Therefore, we always work for the common good of the profession, trying to reach global agreements on any matter that is of benefit to the entire Group.
Our relationship with the Members is based on a fundamental premise, our respect for the College and its direct relationship with its Members, that does not mean that the General Council is not attentive to the needs that the members have at all times and therefore, it organizes actions for the entire group, which will provide added value to those developed by its own College and sends general information to both the presidents and members of the Board as well as members, something that during this last year and a half has been vital for the development of the profession and the professional work of the members.
The General Council intends with its auxiliary activity to collaborate with the Colleges, our only objective is to “help” the members see that they have a return.
Our goal is to add
In addition, we must take into account that our work is vital with respect to smaller schools whose economic resources are less and who appreciate the activity we carry out in support of information and training actions (webinar, training sessions, specialization courses in labor procedures and labor relations, etc.).
What is the current situation of the group of social graduates? Formulate a priority and a wish.
After almost two years of the crisis unleashed by covid-19, our group is exhausted by the amount of work and responsibility that has fallen on all our members, having developed an essential activity for our business fabric, SMEs, self-employed workers and workers. We must not forget that, thanks to the Social Graduates, the burden on companies with the preparation and presentation of ERTE has been lightened, it has been made possible for self-employed workers to collect the cessation of activity benefit and, thanks also to the request for collective unemployment benefit, employed workers have collected their benefit.All this on repeated occasions, since we had to extend or make a new request from time to time, and in addition an endless number of procedures have been carried out requesting local, provincial, regional and state benefits and aid.
We Social Graduates have been and continue to be the bridge that in these difficult times has united companies, workers and citizens with the State Administration
For this reason, I am proud of this profession, and of the commitment and dedication of all the Social Graduates of Spain in overcoming this situation of health pandemic and social and economic drama. To them, my most sincere gratitude with the hope that society also recognizes this work, an issue that without a doubt the General Council will disseminate and transmit wherever it goes so that this work is recognized and known by everyone. The priority and wish is the same, that we can soon overcome this health and economic crisis that has had a notable impact on our lives and in an enormous way on our daily work, I sincerely wish that there are no more deaths and so that Social Graduates can rest a little from the intense work to which we are being subjected.
What importance do you attribute to communication? And to institutional relations? What are the relations like with the administration and with social partners such as unions and employers' organizations?
Communication is a very important activity for our corporation, as it must be a reflection of the activity we carry out in it, and it is also an open window for the Administration, Institutions and society in general to know our work.
The Institutional relationships are the basis of our work, relationships that must always be kept alive, forcing us to remain attentive to evolutions and changes, and knowing how to adapt to each circumstance
Regarding our relations with unions and employers' organizations, I can tell you that they are good and cordial, maintaining close contact with ATA, CEOE and CEPYME. We want to promote activities both with employers and with the unions UGT and CC.OO, because I consider that these meetings are fruitful for both parties, since all of us are fundamental pieces of Labor Relations and therefore any flow and exchange that we have will benefit them.
In fact, on December 17 at the headquarters of the Spanish Senate, the Social Justice Award was presented to social agents (CEOE, CEPYME, CC.OO and UGT) with the presence of Yolanda Diaz, Minister of Labor and Social Economy, an event that was attended by prominent authorities such as the president of the Congress of the Deputies, Meritxell Batet, the president of the Senate, Ander Gil, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, the Secretary of State for Justice, Antonio Julián Rodríguez, the Secretary General of Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Justice, Manuel Olmedo, and the former Minister of Labor, Magdalena Valerio, the former Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, these are just an example of the important authorities who wanted to accompany us in this event of the Graduates Social.
Regarding the mutual societies collaborating with the Social Security, how can we help them? more?
I consider that the relationship between the Mutual Insurance Companies and the Associations has always been very close despite the limiting regulations that regulate the activity of the Mutual Insurance Institutions themselves, an issue that does not prevent us from seeking formulas so that we can take advantage of synergies that allow the members to get closer to the work they do.
We cannot understand the work environment without the fundamental and essential role that Mutual Insurance Companies play
I want to highlight, at the same time as the work carried out by the Social Graduates, the work that the mutual societies collaborating with the Social Security have been carrying out for many years, and which has come to be corroborated by the decisive and very important role they have had in this pandemic. Thanks to their excellent work, it has been possible to manage the cessation of activity benefits of the self-employed, having been working side by side with the social graduates so that the self-employed could collect these important aid.
(*) Technical Commission of Social Security, fiscal, new technologies, communication and image, negotiation with lawyers, relations with the Courts and other ministries, OPR, mediation, content in RRSS, relations with justice, reform of the statutes, relations with the University, constitution of the National Institute of socio-labor auditors, human resources, equality, for the DGT and for the preparation of reports.
