Absenteeism from work has become one of the biggest problems in the Spanish economy. According to the latest report published by Randstad, absences from work have increased by up to 7.2%, exceeding by one tenth what was recorded at the end of the previous year. A situation that is directly affecting companies and public coffers and that has caused changes in labor law.
In order to reduce this figure, the Government of Pedro Sánchez has announced the reinforcement of surveillance of employees who have been in a situation of temporary disability leave for two or more times in the same year. A decision promoted by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, in response to the data reflected in the latest AIReF report.
The Independent Fiscal Responsibility Authority revealed in its report that the expense that this type of temporary sickness caused in the national economy had tripled and that registered cases had increased by 58.4% between the years 2017 and 2024. These are worrying figures for which the Government of Spain has wanted to establish a reinforcement of controls and inspections to guarantee that the provisions of labor law are complied with.
The State Temporary Disability Observatory will evaluate each case in real time
For this, the National Social Security Institute will carry out a automated tracking of those workers who request temporary disability for the second or more times in the same year. A measure that responds to data revealed by AIReF, in which they declared that approximately a quarter of employees accounted for more than half of the cases registered by IT.
Within this follow-up, the State Observatory of Temporary Disability (IT), created by the ministry in February 2026, will be in charge of analyzing casualties in real time, thanks to automation, which will allow its work to be more effective. Its main objective will be detect fraud cases more quickly and accuratelyas well as cases in which workers are requesting sick leave for reasons that are not being treated correctly.
This will reinforce the control of temporary absences
As for how this change will be reflected in workers who are on sick leave, these They may be summoned to the medical court or the mutual insurance company sooner. compared to usual deadlines. Likewise, if you have requested two or more temporary disabilities, the INSS may carry out a investigation and review of the file to detect possible causes of the request.
In the event that the reason for sick leave is identical to that alleged on previous occasions and the worker has not recovered his or her working capacity, the medical court will consider granting a permanent disability. However, if they consider that there is no justified reason to continue on leave, this may be denied.
In addition, they will pay special attention to cases in which short absences occur, that is, between one and four days. Nevertheless, The average temporary disability in Spain is around 4.9 weeks sick leave per year. A figure that stands out when compared to the European average, which is 2.6 weeks.
Necessary measures, especially after knowing, thanks to the INSS, that the cost to the Spanish economy of this type of temporary sick leave reached 59,109 million euros last year. Within this figure, the sector that had the most direct impact was services, concentrating 45,096.1 million euros.