The government has returned to its initial proposal to relax sick leave and now specifies that the integration of employees into their jobs will only be gradual. from the moment you receive the medical discharge. The previous proposal provided that workers on sick leave voluntarily return to work if the doctor confirms this. Sumar and the unions had refused this option, thus opening a new crack in the coalition government.
This is what the Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions declared: Borja Suárezafter the first meeting with social agents this Tuesday for the reform of Temporary Incapacity (IT)where the working group was created to advance this reform engaged with unions and employers in pension reform.
Suaréz clarified that the worker’s return to work will take place after his release for medical reasons, since the reform places the worker’s “health” at the center and he will be supervised by a doctor.
The Secretary of State opened up about the compatibility between salary and social benefits, since the return to work is proposed as a progressive measure. “We are talking about the fact that for a certain time the return to work can be combined with the benefit of the allowance,” he explained.
“We have identified that there are situations in which progressive reintegration is the most effective formula to guarantee an improvement in the health of workers, and that this is particularly evident in certain processes and, in particular, those that last longer ” Suárez said. underlined, who also indicated that this incorporation will be “voluntary” and that the worker will have to request it.
Thus, this Tuesday’s meeting focused on three axes: collaboration between mutual insurance companies and public health services in trauma processes, the evaluation of different IT indicators and the improvement of the protective action of the temporary incapacity.
Concerning this last line, the Ministry proposed the gradual return to work, which Social Security wants to approach from “respect, concern and guarantee of the health of workers”, which the Government will develop within the framework of social dialogue.
Regarding the other two measures, Suárez indicated that “there is a good tone” with the health services regarding the negotiation for mutuals to collaborate in the recognition of traumatological processes and assured that there was a “permanent” communication with the autonomous communities on the measure.
Despite the more relaxed tone of Social Security with regard to the measure, the unions indicated that the ministry “did not specify any concrete proposals” during this Tuesday’s table on flexible sick leave.
In this sense, the secretary of Institutional Policy and Territorial Policies of the UGT, Cristina Estévez, celebrated the change of tone of the ministry regarding the measure by now speaking of “high” and described as “unfortunate the statements of Minister Elma Learn about flexibility. withdrawals.
“We all felt real social alarm about this issue. I think the minister was very unfortunate in the statements she made. It is unthinkable in the context of labor relations to talk about volunteering and even more so in the examples that (the Minister of Social Security) gave assimilating it to active retirement,” he stressed.
For Estévez, the minister’s proposal leaves “the possibility” that workers will feel pushed “to return to work, which was planned”, and he assured that if the Ministry of Social Security embarked on the path of a gradual reintegration after a work stoppage, they will oppose it. “It’s an aberration and we would fight against everything,” he stressed.
For his part, the Secretary of Public Policy and Social Protection, Carlos Bravo, assured that unions and employers have “completely” rejected the concept of flexible sick leave and warned Social Security that this measure is “frivolous and irresponsible.
From the CEOE they assured, in statements to Europa Press, that business organizations will continue to work to improve the health of workers and the management of IT processes “with discretion and confidentiality”.
Regarding other issues, Bravo indicated that the Ministry of Social Security has expressed concern about the increasing cost of temporary disability, which the union attributes to the aging of the working population, and has defended this temporary disability by relationship with Social Security expenditure as a whole remains stable and represents approximately 8% of Social Security budgets.
“We will immediately present a proposal for detailed information on everything we want as elements to discuss and work calmly on this issue,” he defended.
Finally, the two unions asked Social Security for a certain discretion in the negotiations on the reform of Temporary Disability, in which they will continue to participate, but reiterated their opposition to flexible sick leave.
