Yolanda Díaz confronts Feijóo over his plan against sick leave: "We are not going to allow it"

Yolanda Díaz has responded harshly to Alberto Núñez Feijóo after the PP leader proposed to Basque businessmen to cut salaries and "benefits" for workers who do not attend their jobs, whether due to sick leave, a permit, or another type of absence. The second vice-president and Minister of Labor has confronted him on the social network Bluesky with a direct message: "We are not going to allow it."

The response comes after Feijóo's intervention before the Basque Businessmen's Circle, where the president of the PP described absenteeism as "a cancer that we cannot afford" and assured that, if he reaches La Moncloa, he will take measures "with or without agreement" with unions and employers. The popular leader linked the problem to a cost of more than 30,000 million euros and questioned why some agreements maintain salary supplements during sick leave.

Estar enfermo no es una elección. Elegir desproteger a las personas trabajadoras cuando más vulnerables están, sí lo es. Feijóo deja claro qué hará si llega a ser presidente del Gobierno. No lo vamos a permitir.

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— Yolanda Díaz (@yolandadiaz.bsky.social) 7 de julio de 2026 a las 18:28

Díaz has placed the debate in the realm of labor rights. “Being sick is not a choice,” the Minister of Labor has written. Immediately after, she criticized the logic of economically penalizing someone going through a vulnerable situation: “Choosing to leave workers unprotected when they are most vulnerable, that is a choice.”

Labor turns the proposal into a red line

The clash is not minor. Feijóo has taken up one of the major demands of the employers' association in recent months, which has been pushing for the cost of sick leave and for more room for mutual insurance companies to intervene in temporary disability processes. The PP tries to position absenteeism as a banner of productivity and competitiveness, but the response from Labor goes another way: a medical leave cannot be treated as a general suspicion against the worker.

The problem exists and data shows an increase in sick leave since the pandemic, but unions and experts have long been pointing out factors that Feijóo barely separated in his speech: waiting lists, aging of the working population, mental health, care leave, precariousness, and lack of prevention in companies. Putting everything in the same bag allows for hardening the discourse, but also erases very different causes.

Díaz has taken advantage of the popular leader's proposal to mark the political contrast. Sumar has been trying for months to present itself as a bulwark against any labor setback, from working hour reduction to dismissal and collective bargaining. Feijóo, on the other hand, has put on the table a reform that would directly affect the pockets of sick workers or those absent for justified reasons.

The minister has also issued a warning about what, in her opinion, the PP would do if it returns to government. “Feijóo makes clear what he will do if he becomes president,” she stated. Labor has already set its position: with Díaz at the helm, that cut will not enter through the Ministry's door.