Este article analyses two issues that are closely related. Firstly, from a critical point of view, there is a reflection on the current model of Spanish employment relationships, subject to a permanent process of reforms aimed at promoting employment, although in practice they are leading to a strengthening of the unilateral power of the entrepreneur within the production organisations, which deprives the ambassadors of substantial rights in which decades were invested. Secondly, it deals with the inclusion of a growing group of people expelled from the labour market in the care system, which is also deeply affected by the financial cuts. The complex Spanish care model, managed by the Autonomous Communities, does not guarantee this group the minimum coverage of needs, which is leading to an undesirable regression: there is gradually a return to a charitable and care model, unsuitable for a social and democratic state of affairs. To this end, the current model of social services will be explained, within the institutional framework of the welfare state, and will then set out some of the current difficulties resulting from the economic crisis, aggravated by the recent labour reform. Although the reflections focus on the Spanish legal system and labour market reality, other surrounding countries are extrapolated.