Sánchez points to Feijóo after his offensive against sick leave: "Rights are not cut"

Pedro Sánchez has fully entered the controversy opened by Alberto Núñez Feijóo regarding sick leave. From Ankara, where he is attending the NATO summit, the President of the Government has responded to the leader of the PP after he proposed to Basque businessmen cutting salaries and benefits for workers who do not attend their posts, including sick leave, permits, and other absences.

Feijóo had called labor absenteeism “cancer” during his speech before the Basque Business Circle and had promised to act “with or without agreement” with unions and employers if he reaches La Moncloa. The popular leader linked sick leave and absences to a cost of tens of billions of euros and questioned that certain agreements complete the salary of those who are not working.

Sánchez has taken that phrase to directly hit the PP. “Whoever calls sick leave ‘cancer’ and proposes that sick workers earn less makes it clear whose side they are on,” he wrote on X. The message places Feijóo’s proposal in a much broader battle: salaries, social protection, and labor rights.

The president added that his Government is “on the side of those who get up early, work, and deserve protection when their health fails them.” The response comes in the midst of the NATO summit, but with Moncloa also attentive to the internal front, where the PP is trying to turn absenteeism into an economic and business banner for the electoral cycle.

Labor had already marked the red line

Sánchez’s reaction reinforces the position that Yolanda Díaz had set a few hours earlier. The second vice-president and Minister of Labor responded from Bluesky with a very direct phrase: “Being sick is not a choice.” She then added that choosing to leave workers unprotected when they are most vulnerable is.

Díaz was even more emphatic with the warning to the PP. “We are not going to allow it”, wrote the minister, who has been trying for months to present Sumar as a wall against any labor setback. For the Ministry of Labor, the problem of sick leave cannot be addressed by punishing sick workers or by placing general suspicion on permits, temporary disabilities, and justified absences.

The debate has a long way to go because it connects with a growing demand from employers regarding the cost of sick leave, the role of mutual insurance companies, and productivity. Unions, for their part, point to other factors: waiting lists, mental health, aging of the working population, precariousness, occupational prevention, and overload in many sectors.

Feijóo has opened that door to businessmen. Sánchez and Díaz have decided to close it from the Government: “Rights are not cut. They are defended”.