Mechanisms of work sanctions and sanctioning responsibilities in the Social Security administration

Abstract

The present paper focuses on work-related sanction rules in Spanish Law and how its specific evolution reveals changes happened in public service administration system over the last few decades. The regulations included in Real Decreto 928/1998 of March 14 have undergone some modifications but remain mainly valid. Since they were passed, crucial changes have taken place regarding the agencies that have the competence to exercise sanctioning power because of the fact that a large number of administrative responsibilities have been transferred by the Government to the autonomous regions. The paper touches upon unanticipated consequences of this process, such as legal insecurity and lack of rationality derived from the distribution and fragmentation of sanction mechanisms and jurisdiction in Social Security among different decision-making organs according to the category of offence.