As of April 1, it will not be necessary to present the medical leaves on paper in the company

Euskaraz irakurri: Apirilaren 1etik aurrera beharginek ez dute lantokian gaixoaldi bajaren papera aurkeztu beharko

From April 1stthe working people not they will have to present medical leave in paper format in your company. The Official State Gazette (BOE) has published this Thursday the royal decree approved last week by the Spanish Government, which modifies this certain requirement in the management and control of processes for temporary disability.

Until nowwhen the medical staff granted a medical discharge, confirmation or discharge report to a sick person, the latter provided them with two copies, one for the same patient and another (called FIE), a submit to the company within two days. The worker was also obliged to notify the employer of his withdrawal.

This obligation meant a disruption for the employee and a transfer of documents, which was aggravated by the pandemic. In fact, Osakidetza itself and some companies digitized this process, and immediate and electronic shipping is a reality in many of them.

However, the modification of the royal decree carried out by the Government of Sánchez officially ends this process, and as of April, the general procedure should be the following:

The optionalor where appropriate, the mutual, will send the parties to the Social Security electronically and immediately —or at most the next business day—; Subsequently, the Social Security will notify the company, and they will have three business days to complete the data required through the Electronic Data Submission (RED) system. Sanctions are contemplated in case of non-compliance.

Nor will it be mandatory to notify

With the entry into force of the measure, within three months, the employee will not even have to communicate his leave to the company (it will become a recommendation), since from then on all the responsibility will fall on the medical staff —that is, who must send the FIE file— and the companies —who must check daily which of their staff are on leave.

In addition, the royal decree clarifies that the optional staff may set shorter medical review periods to those indicated (suppose a week), depending on the evolution of the disease.

Questioned about this last issue, the head of the union THE A In terms of occupational health and safety, Izaro Mujika, has denounced in statements to Radio Euskadi, that the decree “enables the mutuals to summon the sick worker before the seven days established; something that in the case of Osakidetza does not pose a major problem , although yes in the case of mutuals: we already know their modus operandi. Once again the decree has been carried out to favor the mutuals”.

Likewise, Mujika explained that the Osakidetza Primary Care professionals already began to provide digital reports during the pandemic, which “further increased the already saturated workload” that supported this group.