Eva Torrecilla, president of the College of Social Graduates of Madrid "We work by and for the profession"
Eva Torrecilla She has presided over the College of Social Graduates of Madrid since October 2021. A social graduate and mediator certified by the University of California Hastings College of the Law, Eva has been a partner in a professional firm since 1993 and has written numerous articles on Labor Law and Social Security, regularly participating as a teacher in conferences and seminars at different universities and other educational entities. In 2017 he received the Distinguished Cross of 1st Class of San Raimundo de Peñafort, awarded by the Ministry of Justice.
For those who don't know, what is the main field of action of social graduates?
Social graduates, due to their training and specialization, work in the field of Labor and Social Law.Social security advising and managing small and large companies, self-employed workers, workers and citizens. Our world is also the legal function, labor and management advice.
In addition to being the president of the College of Social Graduates of Madrid, you work as a social graduate in a legal advisor's office and you combine it with teaching in various entities. How do you manage to achieve everything?
With a lot of love, passion and vocation, it is a vocational issue. You try to adjust the times, there are many hours of work. In the family sphere, my husband helps me and is co-responsible for all household matters. In the office, the staff who work with me and are by my side know the situation I have. It is looking for that point of balance and above all doing it with love.
How does the College defend social graduates? Could you comment on the advantages of joining a college?
What the college as a public law corporation does is monitor and promote the profession of social graduates, which is known in all spheres, not only in society but in institutional relations at the community, city council, provincial and national levels through the General Council, which is a connection point with the Ministry.
The advantage of joining a college is not feeling alone, feeling that there are other colleagues like us who are working for and for the profession and that we can help each other if we collaborate together.
Specialization in the field of Labor Law and Social security It is important, there are colleagues who are dedicated to risk prevention, others to consulting and others to taxation, these are areas in which you have to know who to go to, whether it is another colleague or the school itself to ask a question.
The school has been developing an important training and information activity in the face of any legislative developments, new situations, work platforms and everything related to document management.
In your appointment letter you focused on a remodeling of the College's website, aware of the importance of digitalization at this time. Will social networks be next?
Yes, little by little, we go with everything. The College as an institution is developing and updating, there is a lot of paper documentation that is being scanned, documents are being digitized, new tools are being created, we have to change the website, the one-stop shop, a series of platforms, because now everything is being done electronically.
Social networks are an important point in this task of explaining to society who the social graduate is and what he can do: he is the specialist in Labor and Employment Law.Social security Who to go to when there is any problem.
What is the relationship between social graduates and the public administration? And with the mutuals? And with Fraternidad-Muprespa?
The Administration is good in Madrid, and in Castilla La Mancha, because we also have members from Toledo, Cuenca and Guadalajara. We have to be open to that communication and it has been encouraged, for example with the SEPE when we advanced the ERTEs and when we have been in the office and we did not have a point of contact to go to. We continue to demand a much more direct relationship since it seems that it is moving towards telematic attention.
It is important that the College is a point of reference between the Administration and the members.
Regarding the mutual insurance companies, I have to say that it is very good, the school has contact with all the mutual insurance companies. With
How do you see the future of the profession, and what do you think will be the key themes that will mark your work in the next two years?
It continues to be a future of constant change, on the one hand an impressive management effort has been generated because the entire Administration communicates electronically with digital signatures, we have to be aware of SILTRA, CASIA, of all the procedures that are carried out in the INSS through the TUSS of the Social security, We have more and more management work but at the same time, everything is channeled into advice and an interpretation of the norm. Since the pandemic came, the number of procedures and laws that have come out and that we have been forced to read and interpret, such as the labor reform, is enormous, so we have a very important job of interpreting the rule and the consulting that can be done to companies to help them in their daily lives. We have a very important legal field, we cannot forget that we are a recognized legal profession and that we must continue to promote action in the courts.
Speaking of labor reform, what has this change in the types of labor contracts meant for your group? Do you think it is appropriate and necessary? Do you think that the drop in unemployment that we currently have is a consequence of the labor reform?
The first thing is to accept it, read it, understand it and interpret it, the labor inspection has not given any criteria, there is no jurisprudence because it is still very early, so we have to re-educate ourselves and act as a guiding bridge between the legislation and the employer, informing him of what the new contracts are.
Was labor reform necessary? Probably yes. Perhaps it is a matter of the needs of our labor market.
We were used to the temporary contract, which actually became permanent but was often used as a long trial period. On the other hand, the drop in unemployment is not an effect of the labor reform, perhaps of the statistics to the effect that there are more permanent contracts.
The Advisor's Corner is a tool integrated into the Mutua's Digital Office. Can you tell us about the advantages that this tool brings to your advice?
Any tool to develop information improvement in management is good; in the office it is used by people who are in direct contact with the mutual company. It is also an intuitive and fast tool.
What do you think of the Discussion Forum as a tool to share a specific topic with other advisors?
It is very important because we have indirectly had to do it in small groups, through WhatsApp and email groups, and it is a bit of what the School does. The Mutual Fund tells us that we are not alone and that they can go to a place where they have a quick response and this generates security, sometimes it is you who needs information or advice and other times other colleagues. Sharing information is always very good.
Finally, what would you ask of the Mutua so that you can improve the service you provide to your clients and members?
It gives us a bit of it every day. Mutual insurance companies have made a great effort in the entire telematics issue since the pandemic, when the aid for the self-employed began, the cessation of activity, benefits for dependent children, risk of pregnancy, etc. It is very important that there is a search engine that makes the task of searching easy, because many times you enter web pages and do not know where to go, there is a lot of information but you have to know how to search for it.
Fraternidad-Muprespa has made a great improvement on its website and this is what needs to continue promoting.
When we do something new we must ensure that it reaches the collaborator or the company, that the information reaches them, this helps on a day-to-day basis because searching takes up a lot of our time, we must know how to evolve on the part of everyone and collaborate in these efforts.
