In Spain there is more and more talk about sick leave. The conversation makes so much sense because they argue every year the reports of the previous onea trend that even prompted employers and unions to show this “being worried about” by the phenomenon in a joint document as important as the V Agreement on Employment and Collective Bargaining. Social actors are discussing with the government the possibility of mutual insurance companies playing a greater role in trauma-related absenteeism to alleviate this problem, which goes much further: it affects the productivity of the company and also for the employee health.

In this context, it is useful to observe the phenomenon as a whole, differentiate based on typology and dig into the reasons that give rise to this. The following graphs attempt to provide an answer.

Absenteeism due to illness among employees is becoming increasingly common

Temporary disability is the period during which an employee is unable to work due to an accident or illness. And these stages are divided into two types: professional contingencies (derived from work) and general contingencies (not related to it). This is the theory, because in reality there are common contingencies caused by work activities his professional origins are not recognized.

Once this point is qualified, the numbers show a worrying growth path. Social security data at the end of 2023 indicate that temporary disability due to common unforeseen circumstances registered an average prevalence of 47.3 per 1,000 employees. It is the maximum because there are consolidated figures, a series that starts in 2007. Then it was 32.4, a record that fell to at least 19.1 in 2012.

Not only employees, but also self-employed people

There is also growth among the self-employed, at historic levels, people for whom a loss significantly reduces their income. The prevalence of temporary disability due to common unforeseen circumstances per 1,000 protected self-employed persons increased to 40.69 in 2023, well above the 27.73 recorded by this variable in 2014. The acceleration is less than that among employees, but is equally remarkable.

Increasingly older employees

Before we proceed to analyze this increase in the number of victims, it is worth explaining what this is due to. Experts, both those who speak from the employers' side and those who speak from the trade union side, always point out a number of key points. The first is that the working population is aging. And the older you are, the more likely you are to get sick. The forecasts are not rosy: demographic projections indicate that the working population will continue to age in the coming years, which means that a worsening of absenteeism is expected. Today, workers aged 50 or older make up more than ever 35% of the total. Twenty years ago this percentage was 19.6%.

More waiting lists

The second important reason to understand the acceleration of the number of victims is the deterioration of public health response time. Official statistics from the Ministry of Health confirm this decline: in December 2023, Spain recorded a record 849,535 people on surgical waiting lists. It is almost double what it was twenty years ago, when there were 9.78 people in this situation per 1,000 inhabitants. Today it is 18.11, also the maximum reported. Moreover, the share of those who have been waiting for more than six months is very high: 24%, a figure exceeded in 2020 only by the anomalous 27% and three times as much as at the beginning of the century (8%). This group of negative data is supplemented by the average waiting time of 128 days in 2023, one of the worst records in the series and also at levels much higher than those of twenty years ago (77) or ten years ago (98).

Experts often point out that there is also a paradox in this area: the autonomous communities are responsible for healthcare, responsible for reducing waiting lists; But the cost of entrenchment will not affect their bills, but rather those of Social Security, as benefits are extended. Ultimately, everything comes from the same piggy bank, the public accounts, but it is a factor to take into account.

Strong labor market

The third fundamental element to understand the bullish projection of losses is the strength of the labor market. “The quantitative evolution of temporary disability depends directly on the evolution of employment. In times of crisis it goes down; in good times it goes up,” explains Maria del Mar Crespí, professor of labor and social security law at the University of the Balearic Islands and author of the dissertation Temporary disability and absenteeism: prevention, control and return to work. This phenomenon occurs because employees take less sick leave during crises, when there is fear of losing their jobs. In many cases they come to work sick. Now Spain records the lowest unemployment rate in a first quarter in the last sixteen years.

Tired from work

José María Peiró, researcher at the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (Ivie), shares the importance of the three previous factors, but has recently contributed in conversation with this newspaper another: “Since post-pandemic, there is a different way to approach work. In the United States this was reflected in the Great Resignation, where many people voluntarily left their jobs. Not here, because unemployment is high, but the phenomenon is similar: many people are in crisis in terms of the meaning of what they do, it is a silent absence. I think it has something to do with this phenomenon.”

He believes that this happens to a greater extent the worse the employee feels in the company. According to a study by institute 40dB. At EL PAÍS and Cadena SER, 52% associate work with a feeling of exhaustion and 41% He associates it with fear. Various authors have spoken of the “great exhaustion”“, a society in which everyone is tiredburned out, feeling that he cannot survive due to the pressure imposed by the new rhythm of daily life.

And yet professional contingencies have a different rhythm.

Despite this continued increase in temporary disability due to common unforeseen circumstances, professionals are taking a different path. The prevalence per 1,000 protected workers (including employees and self-employed) remains at 3.96. It is a high figure, but far from a record in the historical series, as is the case with other types of contingencies.

The confederal secretary of CC OO of Occupational Health, Mariano Sanz, believes that the under-reporting of diseases by professionals is increasing year after year: “The one responsible for paying the benefit cannot be the one who declares it.” Speaking of mutuals, they work with money paid by companies and social security. They provide support in case of absenteeism due to common unforeseen circumstances, but in professional cases they are in charge: they take care of the treatment and process the benefit. That is, these unforeseen circumstances take away more resources, and the mutuals themselves have the power to indicate the cause of an occupational disability. The employers of AMAT's mutual companies have flatly rejected this approach a recent report from this newspaper: “Mutual societies try to generate savings from unnecessary expenditure, while complying with all legal principles, savings that always end up in social security assets.”

The coordinator of the confederal secretariat of Occupational Health of the UGT, José de las Morenas, insists that “the list of occupational diseases must be updated.” Crespí believes that the underreporting of diseases by professionals is not the main cause of dissonance. He believes the answer lies in the variation depending on whether there is a crisis or a boom, with a much smaller effect on professional contingencies (a more controlled environment) than on ordinary events.

More hours not worked due to temporary disability

This acceleration of absenteeism is concentrated in a specific effect on the labor market: more and more hours are lost due to temporary disability. In the fourth quarter of 2023, this was 7.6 hours per month, the second highest record in the series (started in 2008). This variable reached its lowest point during the worst of the Great Recession, in 2013 at just 3.4 hours per month. It should be noted that this increase occurs at the same time as the decrease in effective working hours: they decreased by 7.4% compared to 2008, while the number of people not working due to temporary disability grew by 38.2% compared to the same period.

Few changes in the duration of sick leave

The data shows that more and more people are experiencing sick leave, but not that these periods are getting longer. The data has changed little so far this century, with the exception of a jump during the pandemic that has already been reversed. The longest absenteeism due to common unforeseen circumstances is that of the self-employed. They last an average of 98 days, which is a high record because, according to experts, they tend to limit their absence to serious conditions. That of employees for this same concept is on average 36 days.

Differences by sector, province and gender

The sectors that lose the most monthly hours due to temporary disability are water supply (11.4 hours per month on average), health care and social services (10.4), administrative activities (9.7) and public administration (9.5 ). At the other end of the scale are energy supply (4.6), scientific and technical activities (3.9), information and communication (3.8) and real estate activities (3.8). The agreement is not perfect, but in activities with a lot of absenteeism due to illness there is a larger share of employees older than 50 years than in activities without absenteeism due to illness.

By province, a significant concentration of victims is observed in the north of Spain, precisely the oldest area of Spain. Nevertheless, the highest prevalence of temporary disability per 1,000 employees occurs in Las Palmas (67.73), precisely a province characterized by its younger than average number of inhabitants. The other two in the highest positions are older than average: Pontevedra (63.71) and A Coruña (63.69).

Female employees also suffer from temporary disability more often than male employees. This is clearly evident from social security data: the prevalence per 1,000 workers is 37.58 among them and 47.16 among women. In both cases, sick leave lasts an average of 39 days.

More than in the rest of Europe

a recent report from Ivie talks about the consequences of temporary disability in Spain compared to its European neighbors, a diagnosis in which the country is in a bad position. Spain is the second country with the highest number of workers absent due to illness (4.1%, comparable to Portugal and only after France) and is the fourth country to spend the largest share of its GDP on temporary disability benefits (1. 4%). , only behind the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden).

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