The association of Self-employed UPTAattached to the UGT, joined the majority unions this Tuesday and attacked the government’s proposal to modify the sick leave to make it flexible and that the worker gradually enters his job. UPTA considers that this flexible sick leave may violate the right to health protection of the self-employed group.
“Given the confusion generated by this improvised and not yet agreed reform, at UPTA Spain we express our concern about how the flexibility of sick leave may affect the group of self-employed workers,” reiterated the union in a press release.
For the UPTA, the proposed measure is “very difficult to apply” due to the multitude of cases of temporary incapacity and, moreover, it could not only violate the right to health protection of employed and self-employed workers, but could endanger the normal development of work and economic activities.
In the same way, he emphasizes that the “voluntary character” of the measure could never be such, given the existence of a relationship of superiority between the employer and the employee, which could give rise to situations outside of legality.
The president of UPTA, Eduardo Abadstressed that self-employed workers who request leave for temporary incapacity only do so when they find themselves in a medical situation which makes them completely incapable of developing their economic activity, hence the rate of absenteeism due to this situation. the problem at work is that his own account is “sucky”.
The UPTA joins the workers’ commissions in its criticism of the proposal from Elma Saiz, Minister of Social Security. The Secretary General, Unai Sordoaffirmed that workers “can only go to work when they are cured” and that, in the case of certain illnesses that recommend progressive incorporation, they must be approached from a “medical” perspective.
Social Security has qualified its proposal and indicated that the return to work after sick leave that the Ministry wishes to promote will be progressive and will take place once the worker “has regained his health”, that is to say once released. In addition, he reiterated that it will be voluntary and that the worker must request it from his doctor.
Asked about the issue, Sordo stressed that Monday’s meeting was not intended to address the issue of flexible sick leave, but rather to put on the table what is happening in Spain with IT and to develop some of the agreements concluded with the government in the field of pensions. agreement signed last September.
“The aim of sick leave is to restore the health of workers. This is the only goal of the victims and, from there, I am not going to get into the therapeutic questions of how certain healing processes should take place, but, obviously, what we need to see is what happens to these victims,” Sordo said stressed.
Thus, he warned that in Spain temporary disabilities are increasing, as well as sick leave costs, “significantly”. “The question is why,” he added.
For Sordo, the increase in work stoppages may be due to a greater delay in appointments for primary care and specialized care due to the “deterioration of public health.” “If this is one of the questions or conclusions we reach, we will have to focus on strengthening public health care,” he explained.
