Open controversy within the coalition government over the competence and scope of the implementation idea flexible sick leave. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, put forward the proposal this Thursday, provoking a rapid reaction from the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díazand the Minister of Health, Mónica García.
In an attempt at education, Saiz clarified today that with his approach to flexible sick leave does not seek “under any circumstances” to save money for Social Security due to high expenses for temporary incapacity (TI), but Its intention is to “expand rights” and advance “social justice.”
Thus, he stressed that his proposal according to which workers on sick leave can gradually return to work voluntarily in certain cases and always under medical supervision, is a debate at a “very early” stage, which was put on the table after listening to many groups and companies, and which will be discussed in the area of social dialogue.
“In my daily life at the ministry, in various meetings, meetings, with different groups, with citizens, with associations, with businessmen and, of course, also with groups and with workers, it is a recurring question puts this debate on the table to analyze it and, moreover, put it on the table in a place where we hope that all of society will be represented, which are the tables of social dialogue, and also, even, with experts who can join us,” he said. said in an interview on Onda Cero.
The minister insisted it was a “recurring problem” and defended Talking about temporary incapacity “is talking about something as important as the mental health, psychosocial health and physical health of workers”. “We will have to see on a case by case basis. But, without a doubt, it is a debate, a recurring question and for that reason politics has a fundamental role. This is why it seems to me that in all sensitivity, with caution and with total calm, that this issue be put on the table”, he defended.
Mónica García: “Sick leave is a medical act and we will defend it until death”
Before, in an interview given Thursday evening to Ser, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, recalled that medical leave “is a medical act and we are going to defend it until death. The doctor tells you that you must be on leave just as he prescribes a medicine, health is the first thing in all the visions that one can have on this subject.
And he clearly stated his ministry’s position. “We hate the word flexible”, but it is true, he added, that during the consultation there may be cases of gradual reintegration, such as for example a patient absent for months due to depression and instead to go from zero to one hundred, it must undergo progressive incorporation, this possibility can be explored.
However, he warned that “if we talk about flexibility to unprotect the worker, who can be affected by coercion or pressure from companies, we will never agree on this point.” Thus, for the Minister of Health, this question must be “examined from the point of view of the patient, if this is beneficial for his recovery, and not from that of the employer, who wants the employee to return as quickly as possible” .
A speech on the risks of this “flexibility”, which also has an impact today Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasunby Sumar. “I don’t like it at all and I think we should be extremely careful by making sick leave more flexible. It’s very dangerous to make this more flexible and see how some employers might use it. We don’t like this flexibility at all,” he said in an interview on RAC1.
A controversy over the prism from which this proposition is approached and in which Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díazwas live this Thursday. “There is only one reason behind temporary incapacity: to protect the health of workers. There are no other options or reasons. Neither flexibility nor partiality, we do not play with health“, he published in X after learning of Saiz’s initiative.
Sources of work They then explained to laSexta that “temporary disability (TI) is a right of workers to which available on medical prescription and this determines that these people cannot work. This is not an option“. And they insisted on the fact that everything related to IT must be worked from a perspective of preventing professional risks and guaranteeing the health of workers. “There would be no room for any other approach “, they defended.
Thus, the same sources revealed that there is still no “concretion” of the proposal from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. And they were willing to always evaluate measures to improve the lives of workers. They remember that staggered integration after long-term absences has already been discussed for months at the social dialogue table. And they give as an example a person who has undergone cancer treatment and who, on medical prescription, may not be able to work full time.
