Feijóo plans tougher sick leave rules and wage curb in Spain

Feijóo prepares tougher sick leave rules and a cap on the minimum wage

According to reports in several media outlets, the leader of Spain's PP (People's Party) is shaping a package of measures that tighten the conditions for medical leave, reducing benefits during temporary incapacity, and describes the interprofessional minimum wage as "disproportionate". The initiative, which has not yet been formally presented, has peine the debate on the balance between worker protection and absenteeism control.

The debate highlights a recurring contradiction: while the political agenda focuses on hunting down fraud in sick leave, some point out that the real hole lies in the systematic failure to comply with collective agreements in sectors such as transport and hospitality. Unpaid overtime and abusa of labour rights by employers' associations barely antiestéticature in the official discourse. Corporate impunity, they argue, is a silent theft that far exceeds the cost of fraudulent sick leave.

European absenteeism data qualify the urgency of the reform. According to Eurostat, in the first quarter of 2020 the highest rates were recorded in France (18.1%), Sweden (16.2%) and Austria (15%), while the lowest corresponded to Romania (2.5%), Malta (3.3%) and Bulgaria (4.4%). Spain, with no standout figure in that ranking, does not appear among the countries with runaway absenteeism, which invites the question of whether the solution lies in cutting rights or in enforcing existing legislation.

Feijóo's proposal, backed by sectors that believe sick leave has become a free-for-all, clashes with the reality of a labour market where compliance with collective agreements is the exception. Tightening conditions for all workers without curbing the de facto deregulation in numerous sectors risks punishing the usual suspects. The debate on labour rights will remain open, but the data suggest the focus should be elsewhere.