Centenary of the creation of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate. 1906-2006

On the occasion of the centenary of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate (01-03-2006), this information is dedicated to the History of the Institution and its relationship with Social Law.

The Labour Inspectorate was born in our country at the beginning of the 20th century as one of the most important fruits of the Institute of Social Reforms, its first regulatory regulation being approved by the Royal Decree of 1 March 1906. From that date he is entrusted with the monitoring of compliance with the incipient social legislation of the time. The inspection functions were regulated as early as 1909 and, after the creation of the Ministry of Labour in 1920, a General Inspectorate of a regional nature was established and became provincial with the restructuring of that Ministry carried out in 1932.

In 1939, the National Labour Inspectorate was established and integrated into the Social Insurance Inspectorate and the Emigration Inspectorate. New integrations subsequently occurred as a result of the Labor Inspection Ordinance Act of 1962, affecting the Technical Inspection of Social Security and the Labor Delegates.

In 1984, the Civil Service Reform Act reformed the Labour Inspectorate into a Labour and Social Security Inspectorate, organizing the inspection function around two bodies, the Superior of Labour and Social Security Inspectors and the Superior of Labour and Social Security Inspectors, as the management body.

Finally, in 1997, through Law 42 of November 14 and in accordance with the new territorial organization of the State that emerged from the Constitution of 1978, the Labour and Social Security Inspection System was configured as an integrated institutional set, whose functions are exercised in accordance with the scope of competences of the State and the Autonomous Communities.

This Law defines an institutional system of Labour Inspection and Social Security that is jointly based at the level of the State and the Autonomous Communities. Act No. 42/1997 also establishes, as a management body, the Employment and Social Security Inspectorate Corps, which includes the Labour Inspectorate Corps, adapting and updating its support and cooperation inspectorate functions within the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate system in which they are integrated.

Therefore, 100 years after the appearance of the Labour Inspectorate in our country, a long road has been travelled marked by the change in industrial processes, in labor relations, in organizational models and in institutions, both national and supranational, with the assumption of a progressive protagonism on the part of social agents.