Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted to open a debate about work absenteeism and has ended up putting the Partido Popular in another uncomfortable rectification. The leader of the PP called absenteeism a “cancer” this week before Basque businessmen, questioned that there are workers who can earn the same while on sick leave as when going to their job and warned that, if he reaches La Moncloa, he will address this issue “with or without agreement” with unions and employers.
The phrase caught on quickly because it touched on an especially sensitive subject. He was not talking about a fiscal promise, nor about another parliamentary quarrel, but about illness, salary, labor rights, and social protection. In just a few hours, the Government, the unions, and part of the political right itself read Feijóo’s words as something more than a bad comparison. As a clue as to where the PP might go if it governs.
Génova then tried to correct the blow. Popular sources consulted by 'ElConstitucional.es' insist that Feijóo was not talking about sick workers, but about cases of fraud. The official argument has been repeated since then with the same underlying idea. The PP wants to separate medical leave and fraudulent absenteeism, although the problem is that this clarification came afterwards, not during the intervention that sparked the controversy.
Génova shifts the focus to fraud
The PP now maintains that no one in the party proposes punishing a sick person or cutting the protection of someone who has a justified leave. Juan Bravo, deputy secretary of Finance, was one of those in charge of trying to redirect the message. He admitted that perhaps the party had not explained itself well and argued that Feijóo was referring to irregular cases.
Borja Sémper also marked an important distance from the tone used by his party leader. The national spokesperson of the PP, who recently returned to the political front line after overcoming pancreatic cancer, called for “caution” with certain comparisons. He did not want to fuel an internal rupture, but he did leave a phrase that weighs in the midst of the controversy. Sick leave “is not a whim” and a salary cut cannot be added to the drama of falling ill.
While Sémper cooled down the blow, Isabel Díaz Ayuso came out to support Feijóo with hardly any nuances. The Madrid president assured that the leader of the PP is “more right than a saint” and argued that the problem of sick leaves affects companies, self-employed workers, and colleagues who have to take on more workload. Her intervention once again showed the two speeds of the PP. Génova tries to clarify while Ayuso hardens the framework and throws more fuel on the fire.
The Government sees an agenda of cutbacks
The Executive has decided not to let the opportunity pass. Pedro Sánchez accused Feijóo of pointing at sick workers and of showing the same pattern that, according to Moncloa, was already seen during the years of Mariano Rajoy. For the PSOE, the phrase is not an isolated slip, but a sign of a labor agenda based on cutting rights with the argument of fighting abuses.
Yolanda Díaz was even harsher. The second vice president stated that Feijóo’s words “disqualify him from governing Spain” and described him as an “economic radical”. The Minister of Labor placed the debate on another level. Before talking about salary punishments, she argued, one must look at working conditions, waiting lists, mental health, risk prevention, and the situation of public healthcare.
Mónica García also entered the controversy from Health. The minister reminded that a sick leave does not arise from a capricious decision of the worker, but from a medical act. Behind each report there is a healthcare professional who signs it. That is why, accusing the system of fraud in a generic way ends up putting both workers and physicians under suspicion.
The data does not support the broad brush
The debate has a real part. Sick leaves have increased and companies have long been warning about the cost of organizing staff with more absences. The employers’ association asks to act and Antonio Garamendi has called for addressing the problem with data, calm, and dialogue. But the leap from that diagnosis to pointing to sick leaves as a “cancer” is what has turned the issue into a political firestorm.
The figure used by Feijóo comes from business reports on absenteeism, but those data group together different realities. They include temporary disabilities, justified absences, leaves, and other cases. 'Newtral' recalls that, in Randstad’s data, 77.4% of absenteeism corresponds to medical leaves. That is, to temporary disability processes, not to absences without cause nor to proven fraud.
The regulation itself also dismantles part of the initial message. In a sick leave due to common illness, Social Security does not generally guarantee 100% of the salary. The first three days no public benefit is paid. From the fourth to the twentieth day, 60% of the regulatory base is received. From the 21st day onwards, 75%. When a person reaches 100%, it is usually because it is included in their collective agreement, that is, because it has been agreed upon in negotiation between companies and unions.
That point undermines Feijóo's argument. If the PP questions those supplements, it is not only talking about fraud. It is entering the field of collective bargaining and the agreements signed by the business side.
The far-right Vox opportunistically steps aside and in the PP they are preparing a firewall plan
The controversy has also had an unexpected consequence for Feijóo. The ultras of Vox did not want to take responsibility for his phrase. Santiago Abascal distanced himself and stated that workers, employers, and the self-employed are not the problem of Spain. The move is not minor. The far-right usually pushes the PP towards tougher positions, but this time it has preferred not to appear alongside a proposal that may sound like punishment for sick people.
The PP, meanwhile, is working on a plan against absenteeism commissioned to Alberto Nadal and Juan Bravo. The proposal would include incentives for companies with fewer absences, more control from Social Security, and a greater role for the mutual insurance companies. Génova wants to present that document as a technical response and not as a reduction of rights. The difficulty will be to do so after a phrase that has already set the political framework.
Because the damage from the controversy is not only in the word “cancer.” It is in the feeling that Feijóo spoke first and the party explained later. In that he again mixed delicate concepts in a matter with direct consequences for millions of workers. And in that, once again, the PP has had to come out and say what exactly its own leader meant.
The discussion will now continue with the plan that Génova is preparing. Feijóo has already put the issue into the campaign. The Government has found the labor flank it was looking for. And the PP comes to that battle with a phrase that is hard to erase and a correction that, for now, has been made by everyone except the one who provoked it.
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