Employers’ associations and unions in Catalonia have been embroiled for months in a battle over the narrative surrounding sick leave. Faced with the sustained increase in temporary incapacities (IT) in Spain and Catalonia —the prevalence of sick leave in Spain grew in 2025 by more than two and a half points, reaching 53.7 sick leaves per 1,000 employees, according to provisional data recently published by Social Security, and in Catalonia it stood at 55.06 sick leaves per 1,000—, employers’ associations are demanding measures to combat “absenteeism,” which they hold responsible for millions in losses for companies.
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Unions do not deny that sick leave has increased, but they accuse employers’ associations of alarmism and focus on another aspect: the lack of occupational prevention in workplaces. In a report presented this Monday, the CC OO union goes further and identifies “presenteeism” as the real problem: relying on the Idescat Living Conditions Survey, it recalls that 51.3% of Catalan workers have gone to work sick at least once in the last year despite needing medical leave.
“Forced presenteeism,” as the union explains in a statement, is an “invisible reality that dismantles the business narrative about absenteeism.” The 2025 Occupational Health Report indicates that the rate of people who have gone to work sick increases in the most demanding workplaces, those with very high workloads, up to 86.7%. “This dynamic responds to structural pressure marked by the fear of losing one’s job, wage precariousness, and the lack of work-life balance policies,” the union points out. By sector, education, hospitality, and healthcare have the highest incidence of this phenomenon. The report also highlights that women are also more prone to going to work sick: they are 51% more likely than men, according to the study.
The Generalitat has also entered the debate on sick leave, and through the Department of Health, has carried out campaigns to raise awareness of the need for “responsible use of sick leave.” The Government has been involved in controversies such as proposing incentives for doctors based on their ability to reduce the duration of sick leave, a measure from which it definitively retracted this month.
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Precisely, one of the employers’ associations’ battlegrounds is pointing out the long durations of sick leave. While it is true that IT related to traumatological problems and those related to mental health are increasingly longer, the CC OO report points out that “most procedures are very short-term, which demonstrates that the problem is not fraud, but a model of control and pressure by mutual insurance companies that often leads to premature discharges and avoidable relapses.” The solution proposed by the union involves increasing this control of risk prevention and improving working conditions, reducing working hours and raising wages.
In general, the report shows a panorama of a working class with more than one ailment. The average physical health index is 53.9 points, and that of mental well-being is 65.6. But the report highlights that there is a “massive” presence of musculoskeletal pathologies (neck and shoulder problems, and back problems affect two-thirds of workers with pathologies), and an increasing number of mental health pathologies: almost one in five people is at risk of suffering a mental disorder.
At the press conference presenting the report, the general secretary of CC OO in Catalonia, Belén López, sought to counteract the narrative of the employers’ associations Foment del Treball and Pimec, which exert pressure to reduce sick leave, and advocate for mutual insurance companies to assume functions for granting sick leave and discharges. López stated that the real problem lies in occupational risk prevention, which in many companies is reduced to a document that the worker has to sign. The report indicates that only 10% of companies have true control over risk prevention. “Business investment in psychosocial and ergonomic risk prevention is still residual and insufficient,” the union denounces.
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