Secretary of State for Labour

The Secretariat of State was created in 1981 with the name of Secretariat of State for Employment and Labour Relations.^[3] This Secretariat of State provisionally assumed all the departments and powers of the defunct Ministry of Labour and specifically the functions of the Undersecretariat of Labour, being integrated into the new Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Security. That same year, Health and Work were separated by creating the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and degrading the Secretariats of State to Undersecretariats, assuming the powers of this Secretariat of State, which was suppressed.^[4]

From 1985 to 2010, this department was maintained as an undersecretariat but with the denomination of "General Secretariat". It was in 2010, during the premiership of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that the department was promoted again to Secretariat of State. The socialist government designed a structure for the secretariat that nowadays still exists, with the Directorate-General for Labour and the Directorate General for the Social Economy, Self-Employment and Corporate Social Responsibility.^[5] The powers over the administration of the European Social Fund have varied constantly.

In 2020, the area of social economy was strengthened, with both the ministry and its state secretariat being named, and including this term in their name.^[6] Subsequently, in 2022 a Special Commissioner for the Social Economy would be created and, in 2023, these responsibilities were separated to create an independent State Secretariat.^[7]

The Secretariat of State consists in four departments of different rank and a Cabinet:^[1]