The integration of autonomous workers in the social protection mechanisms: from initial oblivion to the inclusion in the labour mutualities in mid xx^th century

Abstract

The integration of autonomous workers in the mechanism of social protection, these being understood as social security public systems aimed to alleviate situations needed of protection, occurs in almost all European countries after the protection of remunerated workers. Thus, in Spain, its historic development can be defined as a slow walk from the beginning of the XXth century until the final consolidation of the social security system, in virtue of the social security law of 1966. Before said system was implemented, the Spanish judicial order was characterised by the regulation of different disperse social securities and, later, by the configuration of labour mutualities that co-existed with them. In these previous stages, the autonomous worker went from being almost excluded of social security, to being integrated in a mutuality. The causes that determined these events, and the road travelled in this period regarding social coverage for the autonomous workers, constitutes the main contents of the present study.