The constitution of the research group stems from a history of collaborations in an area of common interest such as the study of social policies in general and in particular those instruments of public social protection aimed at covering situations of need whose central point is work (or rather its absence) and the consequences that this fact has on people’s lives, generating a space of exclusion from which without the help of public support it is very difficult to get out. In this sense, most of the researchers in this group are currently participating in an R&D, MINECO of which I am the PI, with the title “Los instrumentos de protección social pública en la gestión del cambio laboral”, DER2014-52549-C4-4-R (National R&D&I Plan, “Research Challenges”, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). This is a project in the modality of Coordinated Projects, in which the coordinating project is being developed by the University of Seville, under the guidelines of Professor Cruz Villalón, with the title “Retos de la gestión del cambio en la empresa desde la perspectiva laboral y social”, DER2014-52549-C.

Among the objectives of this group:

1. To analyse from an international and local perspective the effectiveness of employment policies in ensuring citizens’ access to quality employment that guarantees a dignified existence away from poverty and the capacity of such policies to rescue people who have been excluded from employment and society and are part of vulnerable groups, in a situation or at risk of socio-occupational exclusion. In short, the aim is to identify employment policies that generate inclusive labour markets.
2. To study the impact that the socio-occupational changes, which have taken place in recent years, have had on the adequacy in terms of coverage and intensity of the benefits of the social protection system and to identify its deficiencies as an additional manifestation of the rebalancing of interests derived from the processes of change in the business reality. The analysis covers both contributory and welfare unemployment benefits, minimum income for inclusion, as well as social action and social assistance measures.
3. To study the issues surrounding the sustainability of the public social protection system and to explore the possibilities of achieving its rebalancing through the generation of quality jobs in productive and competitive companies.
4. To analyse the structural conception of labour change in the company, balanced in the consideration of the different interests present in it, designed from the initial consideration of the Spanish legal system but conceived in the context of European policies, from comparative premises and eventually from other European legal systems. 
5. To assess the role of FOGASA in situations of extreme need of companies (insolvency and bankruptcy) and evaluate the possibilities of using wage credit protection formulas to finance the compensation for termination of contracts, as well as its reuse in the achievement of training and employment itineraries or access to partial retirement. 
6. To analyse the vocational training system for employment, pointing out its shortcomings and deficiencies, and to formulate proposals for improvement so that it adapts to the demands of the business world and, at the same time, contributes to increasing the employability of workers. 
7. To examine the role of public employment services as agents of labour intermediation and to explore measures that contribute to their modernisation and improvement and, ultimately, to increasing their effectiveness and efficiency in the placement of unemployed people. To assess the effectiveness of economic incentives in creating and maintaining employment, in particular with regard to the vulnerable.

Collaborators

• David Acosta Rosero - Universitat de València.
• Amparo Merino Segovia - University of Castilla-La Mancha.
• Borja Suarez Corujo - Autonomous University of Madrid.

• Legal activities
• Investigation activities