If the data on medical leave due to illness, accident or incapacity is analysed, Spain would seem to remain immersed in the covid pandemic. The percentage of workers on leave with respect to the total number of employed remains close to 4%, the figure it was at during the pandemic, from previous levels of around 2.5%. Today, months after the covid crisis ended, the rate has not dropped again, according to EPA data.
Funcas senior analyst María Jesús Fernández points out that there is no clear explanation that justifies this situation. However, in his opinion, the consequences of this phenomenon are indeed obvious: a reduction in the average number of hours worked per employee that has also not been corrected over the quarters.
The reasons behind this situation are diverse, according to the Ministry of Social Security, unions and employers. What almost everyone agrees on is that the collapse of the primary healthcare system lengthens periods of incapacity.
Statistical effects deriving from the cycle are also highlighted, as it is usually common for the number of layoffs to fall in times of crisis, due to the fear of losing one’s job, and instead to rise in periods of economic growth.
Sources from the employers’ association CEOE point out that “it has been a long time since we realized the increase in temporary incapacity derived from common contingencies and that is why we asked in the last national agreement on agreements (AENC) that measures be taken to correct it “.
From the Ministry of Social Security, which is headed by Elma Saiz, it is assured that “this issue worries and occupies us and we are aligned with the objective of correcting the overload of public health services and making the recovery of workers effective and more agile”. The ministry adds that “we are working in the line marked by the AENC, which urges the development of agreements with the mutuals aimed at carrying out diagnostic tests and therapeutic and rehabilitative treatments in processes of temporary incapacity due to common contingencies of traumatological origin “.
In fact, absenteeism was one of the issues discussed in Monday’s meeting between the Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions, Borja Suárez, and the social agents.
Sources from the CEOE believe that “one of the problems is the management of primary health care, which, because it is collapsed, causes sick leave to take longer than it should because common contingencies are not dealt with in time”. Patricia Ruiz, federal secretary of the UGT, adds that “waiting lists are enormous” and also points to the problem of “lack of attention to mental health”. The representative of the union specifies that there are almost no means to treat pathologies such as anxiety or depression, which prolongs medical leave.
But there are more causes. Luis Zarapuz, coordinator of the economic cabinet of the Workers’ Commissions, reflects that the crisis of 2008-2013 caused that “due to the fear of losing their jobs in those years, the most precarious workers did not take the leaves to which they were entitled and went to work sick”.
According to Zarapuz, “with the economic recovery and the strong creation of higher quality employment, there has been an increase in casualties”. The economist of CC.OO. insists that when the focus is opened and the data before the crisis of 2008 is analyzed, the percentage of casualties was 3%, above the levels before the covid pandemic.
Some employers also argue that the increase in leave has taken place in parallel with the increase in agreements in which benefits are supplemented when a worker is in a situation of temporary disability. In this way, since there is no loss of salary, there is no incentive to speed up the return to work, they explain.
Patricia Ruiz of the UGT remembers that medical leaves are given by health professionals, so she denies that you can cheat with temporary disabilities.
The wounds that the pandemic has left in society could also be a reason for this high volume of casualties, as it also happens in other European states, says María Jesús Fernández. Some workers now avoid instructing their colleagues and may request leaves to be absent from the work center more than what was done before.
The questioning of the functioning of the primary health services takes place in parallel with the debate opened by the Ministry of Health on the possibility that the workers could process a three-day “auto leave” as a way of reducing the collapse of the system. Patricia Ruiz says that “we do not disagree, but a negotiation is needed in the framework of social dialogue”.
On the other hand, employers are against it precisely because they have not been consulted. The president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, went so far as to request that it be the State that assumes the cost of these extra leaves.
