Elma Saiz has placed temporal disability (IT) in the center of the labor and budgetary agenda. The rebound of work absenteeism after the pandemic is sustained and the hours not worked by IT have grown by 78% compared to the first quarter of 2019, according to the latest data published on the website of the Ministry of Social Security Inclusion and migrations from Official series. In parallel, the aggregate invoice of 2024 amounted to 29,114.87 million (15,014.63 million in benefits by the system and 14,100.24 million direct cost for companies), according to Amat; By 2025, mutuals anticipate that the disbursement will exceed 32,000 million.
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As collected ELECONOMISTSocial Security has asked the OECD to a document with proposals to reduce the duration and frequency of the casualties. The Ministry has intensified its contacts with the organization and Saiz maintained in February a bilateral with Mathias Cormann in Paris, although neither the department nor the OECD have yet disseminated public details of the commission.
The Ministry also works on a regulatory package. The most advanced proposal is the progressive reinstatement after long -term casualties (More than 180 days): For 30 days, the worker would return to part -time, charging 50% of the salary and 50% of the benefit. It is also planned to adjust the management of multi -employment and reinforce the role of mutuals in processes of more than a year, always with medical discharge and clinical dimension. These lines are on the table since June.
To the budget pressure (the Bank of Spain calculates an increase of 78.5% of the expense in IT since 2019) the macroeconomic cost of lost production is added. Umivale Activa and the IVIE estimate an impact of 81,574 million, 5.4% of GDP. At the start of 2025, the absenteeism rate stood at 7.0% of the agreed hours (5.5% for temporary disability), with more than 1.5 million people absent every day, according to Randstad Research.
The pattern that draws the statistics and academic reports is triple and are the aging of the workforce, the deterioration of health (with increases in mental health and musculoskeletal disorders) and the health congestion that extends the recovery. At the end of 2023, the surgical waiting list marked a record of 849,535 patients and 128 days of average delay, a situation that, according to experts, prolongs temporal disability processes.
For its part, the CEOE has opened the door to eliminate or transform the conventional accessories that some companies pay during the IT. “It’s time to transform those accessories,” said his job manager, Rosa Santos, understanding that they can discourage reinstatement. The unions reject that route and ask to first address clinical bottlenecks and prevention.
A transit between Low and Reincorporation
The scheme raised by Social Security seeks to shorten the transit between the total decline and the ordinary activity, with a 30 -day bridge to part -time, after discharge and with medical prescription. The Delimite Pathologies (serious or long evolution) plan requires full -time contracts or greater than 80% and provides for clinical monitoring. The measure has received risk criticisms of pressing high premature and support for the improvement of recovery and productive continuity. Even so, it remains to be defined the diagnostic catalog, results evaluation and lace with risk prevention.
Absenteeism is not just a labor statistic, since it stresses the sustainability of the social protection system and productivity. Long -term casualties, which barely suppose 2.4% of the processes, concentrate 34.1% of the lost days. The repetition pattern also weighs: 16.6% of workers accumulate 64% of the days off. Focus on duration, repetition and diagnosis provides more performance than generic responses.