Las mutuas colaboradoras con la Seguridad Socialpasado, presente y futuro

Resumen

This PhD dissertation aims to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the body of the Mutual Companies that collaborate with Social Security in order to achieve three main objectives. The first is to gain in-depth knowledge of the century-old history of Mutual Companies: how they came into being, what objectives they aimed to achieve, the various regulations that have affected them and the historical maturation process they have undergone up to the present day. The second is to clarify and systematise the current legal system, analysing the applicable regulations and identifying any possible changes that may occur in the short term as a result of the approval of the Draft Regulation for Mutual Companies. The third goal is to examine the legal regime of health and economic benefits to which workers who have suffered an accident at work or occupational disease in Italy are entitled through INAIL, in order to offer a comparative view of Italian and Spanish regulations. Once these main objectives have been achieved, the aim is to reach a final goal: to conclude on the main vicissitudes presented by the current regulation of Mutual Companies and how to solve them. This solution could include the drafting of new Regulation for Mutual Companies to simplify and clarify the current regulations, the establishment of a single specialised state body to manage all health and economic benefits deriving from professional contingencies, as exists in Italy; and the creation of judicial bodies specialising in Social Security benefits. In the absence of standardised and up-to-date regulations, circumstances remain uncertain, especially after the entry into force of Law 35/2014 and its numerous references to non-existent regulations. It is therefore necessary to resort to outdated regulations until the forthcoming Mutual Regulation is in place. Thus, it is undeniable that Mutual Companies are in a situation of absolute insecurity, not only because of the dispersion and complexity of their legal regime, but also because of the progressive pressure that public authorities are putting on them, annually seeing their accounts reduced by the management of temporary disability benefits derived from common contingencies. The methodology used for the development of this dissertation has been eminently legal and analytical. Legal because it has used the methodological tools typical of research work in the field of legal sciences, such as the law, jurisprudence and scientific doctrine. Analytical because the precepts that make up the current legal regime of the Mutual Companies included in the TRLGSS have been examined one by one in the way in which it was configured by Law 35/2014. As each precept of the TRLGSS is analysed, the rest of the legal, regulatory and even statutory provisions that make up its legal system are integrated. At the same time, the aim is to incorporate a practical approach by examining the process of adaptation of the Mutual Companies to the current legal situation, the main statistical data on their management volume and economic capacity, and the orientation of the public authorities with regard to their evolution. To this end, certain information provided by official sources of the different public administrations, by reliable digital journalistic sources and the respective articles of association of the Mutual Companies will be analysed. In order to enhance the practical perspective of the dissertation, an international stay was carried out at the Universitá degli studi dell'Insubria located in Como (Italy) where the figure of INAIL, the only state body specialised in professional contingencies, was studied in detail.