The Ministry of Defense will take this Wednesday the first step to declare the military career as a risk profession, a historical demand of the professional associations of the Armed Forces. The initiative will be presented before the Armed Forces Personnel Council (COPERFAS), an interlocution body between the department and the representatives of the military collective.
According to Defense has reported, this movement represents the start of a process that could translate into relevant changes in the labor conditions of military personnel, such as access to early retirement, improvements in pensions or a greater recognition of the situations of danger inherent to the service.
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, thus promotes a measure that seeks to officially recognize the exposure of members of the Armed Forces to physical and psychological risks, both in national territory and in international missions.
Military associations have been demanding this recognition for years, considering that there is a comparative grievance with other bodies such as regional or local police forces, which do have the consideration of a high-risk profession. In this regard, organizations such as the Spanish Troop and Seamanship Association (ATME) have valued the announcement as a step forward, although they have criticized the lack of prior information and have warned that the process must include real participation from the collective.
Associative sources emphasize that military personnel operate in contexts of special danger, with deployments in conflict zones such as Lebanon or Iraq, in addition to assuming permanent availability and demanding working conditions. However, the recognition as a high-risk profession will not be immediate. The process will require technical studies, reports from different bodies and, foreseeably, regulatory modifications that must be approved in parliament.
