Feijóo announces he will allow mutuals to grant medical leave and again puts sick leave under suspicion

The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Tuesday that he will allow mutual insurance companies to grant medical discharge to workers with certain illnesses if he comes to power. The proposal would considerably expand the powers of these entities and remove the public system's final say on a portion of sick leaves due to common illness.

Feijóo presented the measure during a meeting organized in Terrassa by the Business Confederation of the Terrassa Region (Cecot). Before the Catalan businessmen, he placed absenteeism among Spain's main economic problems and again defended the existence of fraud in a portion of medical leaves.

"Are we going to strengthen the role of mutual insurance companies? Yes. Are we going to facilitate mutual insurance companies performing diagnostic tests? Yes. Are we going to facilitate mutual insurance companies granting discharges for certain pathologies? Yes," he enumerated.

The popular leader left unclear which illnesses would be subject to this system, what procedure mutual insurance companies should follow, and what guarantees a worker who still considered himself incapacitated to return to his job would have. The PP also did not specify whether the discharge would require a subsequent review by public health services.

The measure responds to a long-standing demand from employers' associations and generates strong misgivings among unions. Mutual insurance companies collaborating with Social Security are managed by business associations, although they perform public functions and administer contributions intended to cover work accidents, occupational diseases, and certain benefits.

Mutual insurance companies would go from proposing discharge to deciding it

Currently, mutual insurance companies can directly issue sick leave, confirmation, and discharge reports when the incapacity derives from a work accident or an occupational disease. If the ailment has no recognized relation to work, they can monitor the patient's evolution and propose a discharge, but the decision rests with a public system doctor or the National Social Security Institute.

The reform announced by Feijóo would allow these entities to assume the final decision in some common illnesses. The change goes beyond the agreement reached in 2023 by the Government, unions, and employers' associations for mutual insurance companies to help perform diagnostic tests, treatments, and rehabilitation for musculoskeletal injuries.

That pact sought to reduce waiting lists and accelerate recovery without giving mutuals the power to impose a return to work. So far, only Castilla-La Mancha, Baleares, Cataluña, Asturias, and Cantabria have signed agreements of this type. Most of the communities governed by the PP have not yet developed them.

Feijóo has also promised to increase the number of evaluating doctors and protect the income of those suffering from serious illnesses. "I am in favor of seriously ill people not having a reduction in their salaries due to the misfortune of being on sick leave," he stated before adding that it is necessary to "protect those who need it and abandon those who take advantage of the system."

These words qualify the position he defended at the beginning of July, when he described absenteeism as a "cancer" for companies and questioned collective agreements completing the salary of those on sick leave. "If company agreements stipulate that a person who does not go to work earns the same as when they do go to work, well, what do you want me to tell you," he maintained then.

The president of the PP has now estimated the cost of absenteeism last year at 30,000 million euros and has called for "pursuing fraud". This amount comes from business calculations and includes different work absences, so it is not equivalent to the cost of fraudulent sick leave. Nor is there official statistics that allow determining what percentage of temporary incapacities are granted irregularly.

The latest data reflects that sick leave due to common contingencies reached 55.18 processes per 1,000 employees during the first half of 2026, the highest level in the series. Growth, however, has moderated. Unions and specialists link the increase to the aging of workforces, mental health problems, and delays in public healthcare.

The General Union of Workers (UGT) recalled this Tuesday that nearly half of common sick leaves are related to musculoskeletal pathologies, while the average waiting time to see an orthopedist reaches 132 days. "Sick leave becomes the waiting room of the healthcare system," warned its deputy general secretary for Union Policy, Fernando Luján.

Minister Puente points to Feijóo's labor "agenda"

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has reacted by grouping the announcement with other labor positions defended during recent months by the leader of the PP.

"So Feijóo's agenda, not hidden, is freezing or reducing the minimum wage, cutting salaries and benefits for workers on sick leave, extending the limit of overtime hours per worker and allowing mutual insurance companies to grant medical clearances," he wrote.

UGT has demanded that the debate focus on strengthening primary care, reducing waiting lists, and improving prevention within companies. The union also reminds that mutual insurance companies can already control processes, call for examinations, and suspend benefits when the worker fails to fulfill their obligations.

"Sick people are not controlled. They are cared for, treated, and helped to return," Luján responded.