The proposal by Elma Saiz, Minister of Social Security, to move towards a flexible leave system, fell like a bomb inside and outside the Executive. The first to react were the the unionswho were taken by surprise by the socialist’s announcement. Worker representatives do not understand how this will be possible make incapacity for work compatible with one’s own employment.
“We are surprised. We will see what text they give us and what the ministry is referring to, but a priori It seems to us completely incompatible that there is an inability to work and, at the same time, an ability to work,” he told the newspaper. Patricia Ruizgeneral secretary of the UGT.
The truth is that Elma Saiz’s department had not even informed the social agents its intention to announce this substantial change in sick leave for temporary disability. “There was no prior conversation they also didn’t give us any information about what they wanted to do,” says Ruiz.
This announcement also surprised employers.. Although they place the evaluation at the dialogue table for the evaluation of indicators of temporary incapacity, pending after the last pension and social security agreement, From the CEOE management, they indicate that the idea “does not seem bad”. “After cancer treatment, you have to work something, but not full time,” they explain.
Precisely because this dialogue table has not been established, Carlos BravoSecretary of Public Policies and Social Protection of CCOO, criticizes that “it is not reasonable for proposals of this type to be launched.” “Uncertainty should not be conveyed concerning people in a situation of temporary incapacity”, warns Bravo, for whom “no one should be absent from work one day more than necessary, but not one day less either”.
As the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security itself later explained, one of the keys to Saiz’s proposal is the obstinacy. That is to say, compatibility between sick leave and work can only occur if the employee requests it. Thus, they insisted on the fact that reintegration will always be “voluntary” and that the “health” of workers will be the “first condition” if a person decides to return to work after a work stoppage.
However, Patricia Ruiz considers that volunteering “is always a risk”while workers may face “pressure” from their employers to return to work. “It’s a medical decision, not a question of voluntary action,” affirms the ougetist.
Anger within the government
But the conflict does not only concern the unions. Elma Saiz’s statements sparked a new outcry within the coalition government, with the anger of Yolanda Díaz and her party. Through her social networks, the second vice-president attacked Navarre and warned her: “We do not play with health.”
Also for the Minister of Labor, In the event of sick leave due to temporary incapacity, there should be “neither flexibility nor partiality”.
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However, Díaz’s own department has not been so far removed from the Social Security proposal. So, although they emphasize that sick leave “is a workers’ rights which is accessed by medical prescription which determines that these people cannot work. This is not an option“. They also admit that they are working in a similar direction.
“We always appreciate that measures are adopted that can improve the lives of these workers, in very specific cases such as, for example, the staggered incorporation after long-term absences», Underlines the Ministry of Labor. In fact, they give the same example as the employers’ association by indicating that this can apply to “someone who has undergone treatment for cancer”.
Other countries
Even though Minister Elma Saiz was very vague in her proposal, what little she said is in line with what is already happening in other European countries. And it is that the Compatibility between sick leave and employment in a reality in Germany, France or Sweden.
In Germany there is Stufenweise Wiedereingliederung (gradual reintegration), also called Hamburg Model. This system allows the progressive reincorporation of a worker who has recovered from a long illness. That is, instead of completely returning to work overnight, German workers can do so gradually, increasing days or hours as the recovery progresses.
For its part, in France, there is a intermittent sick leave system for cases of prolonged or chronic illness. The model allows employees to alternate between work days and sick days.
At the same time, in Sweden, labor law allows workers return partially to their occupations during sick leave.
