The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has caused a real earthquake this week by advocating for a salary cut for those on sick leave. Spoiler alert: this already happens. In the case of common illnesses, such as the flu or back pain, for example, there is no benefit during the first three days; from the fourth day up to the 20th, the worker receives 60% paid by the company; from the 21st onwards, 75% is paid by Social Security. However, there may be modifications included in the collective agreement and other amounts or 100% may be paid, as is the case with maternity or paternity leave, which is paid by Social Security. When it is an accident or occupational illness, 75% is paid from the first day by the company.

Feijóo has done it again and, when it seems that the winds are blowing in his favor (with the modest help of the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Civil Guard, the UCO, and a majority of Spanish and Spanish nationalist media, and of the Íbex-35), he manages to show that he is still capable of shooting himself in the foot. And with precision. This time he said that paid sick leave incentivizes the "cancer" of absenteeism and, therefore, fraud. Anti-fraud and anti-cancer meteorite. Seeing the dust raised, spokesperson Borja Sémper took to social media and everywhere else to try to clarify the message: it was worse, because in this case the message was Sémper himself. Recently, the most syrupy spokesperson for the extreme right had to take paid sick leave, precisely for cancer treatment. Subsequent attempts by the party to make it seem that Feijóo had not said what he had indeed said have also not been very useful.Garamendi and Sánchez Llibre –a quasi-comic pair of skinflints– pointed out that Feijóo demonstrates “sensitivity” to a problem that “employers” have been denouncing for some time. An exquisite sensitivity. It would be necessary to know, on the other hand, with more precision, which "employers" they are referring to. Are they the kind of employers, perhaps, who exploit undocumented immigrants while demanding a hard line against dinghy crossings? Those who force employees to be false self-employed? Those who refuse to pay overtime? Those who abuse employees in internships? The absentee worker is a being from the same galaxy as the squatter who takes your home when you go on holiday, the Catalan student who doesn't know how to speak Spanish, or the "moro" rapist of young white, Catholic, well-educated and well-fed girls. They are characters who are part of the imaginary of the current right-wing, created from half-truths and complete lies, which serve to fill the scary tales they tell in their public appearances, their rallies, their articles and discussions and podcasts and whatever else you want. In any case, from denouncing absenteeism at work to identifying labor rights as “a cancer”, and doing so from a place as identified with privilege and parasitism as the political class, there is a considerable distance.Feijóo claims to have the cure for this illness: a labor reform (not negotiated with the unions) that includes a cut in the salaries of workers who are on leave. It strongly recalls the labor reform promoted by his compatriot Rajoy, approved with the steamroller of the absolute majority to the cry of “Que se jodan”, uttered in Congress by the deputy Andreíta Fabra, daughter of the corrupt Carlos Fabra, the one from Castellón airport. Almost fifteen years have passed and the PP's doctrine on labor matters remains where it was: now, if anything, with the assumption that precariousness and growing inequalities (and that we live in a communist dictatorship, according to them) justify any violation of labor rights.

Josep Sánchez Llibre (Vilassar de Mar, 1949), re-elected president of Foment del Treball less than a month ago, prioritizes the fight against absenteeism and plans to have a white paper with solution proposals ready by the first fortnight of September. He already has the list of professionals who will prepare it and explains it in this interview with ARA, conducted during a break at the Annual Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia.

Labour absenteeism has become in recent times one of the main battlehorses for the Catalan business fabric. People who miss work – both for justified and unjustified reasons – are at historic highs, up to 7.4% across the Spanish territory, according to a report by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE). However, this figure has been driven by a large increase in absences: temporary incapacities are already the cause of almost 80% of effective non-worked hours and the absenteeism rate for this reason stands at 5.8%.

The agreement between the Government, employers' associations (Foment del Treball and Pimec) and unions (UGT and CCOO) to pass the budget includes two points relating to the granting of sick leave. one of the most controversial topics of recent weeksThe agreement also underscores the need to "continue strengthening primary care"—the main manager of temporary disability (TD) claims—with an investment of up to €3.878 billion. It also includes the objective of "improving the entire care process" surrounding these procedures, "automating tasks and allowing for a reduction." Among these actions, the agreement indicates that an increase in situations where TD can be prescribed from the hospital is anticipated.

Alba Cuberas, a family doctor at the Manresa-4 Primary Care Center (CAP), sees a patient with intense back pain. She gives him a short sick leave and anti-inflammatory medication, but there is no improvement. With an X-ray, the rheumatologist recommends rehabilitation. "But nobody calls him. I see him once a month, and he's told me two months ago that he hasn't started the sessions," she says. In Sant Pol de Mar, Martín Cebollada suspects a patient may have a herniated disc and, to be sure, orders a CT scan. The wait is six months. "But he has debilitating pain, and I can't know for sure how serious it is; he can't go to work," he states. At the Manso Primary Care Center (CAP) in Barcelona, ​​Eva Segura is monitoring a patient on sick leave for severe depression, with a history of suicide attempts. In the fourth month, she receives the first discharge proposal from the insurance company, but she has just started psychiatric treatment, and the doctor rejects it. In the fifth month, the same request arrives, and she rejects it again. This happens four times. But against her advice (and that of the psychiatrist), the Catalan Institute of Medical Assessments (ICAM) sends the patient back to work, and the company, shortly afterward, declares her unfit. "She loses her job, and her health deteriorates significantly," she explains.

The employers' association Pimec estimates that sick leave costs the Spanish economy €162.564 billion annually, equivalent to 10.2% of GDP. This data is taken from the report. Evolution of sick leave in Spain 2013-2025, Presented this Wednesday in Madrid by the employers' association for small and medium-sized enterprises.

It's midday on a Wednesday, and in the kitchen of the Franca restaurant in Barcelona (c. Roger de Llúria, 46) the three chefs and co-owners, Joshua McCarty, Gianmarco Greci and Francesca Baixas, are preparing the dishes for the evening service, which is what they offer from Tuesday to Saturday. They opened their doors on Friday, February 21 after spending a whole year looking for a place to open in Barcelona, ​​​​where they were excited to work after various adventures in restaurants such as Mugaritz (in the case of Francesca and Gianmarco), Manresa in California (in the case of Joshua) and at Follia in Sant Joan Despí, by J. I interview Francesca (Barcelona, ​​​​1990), and by her side are her colleagues. Things of destiny: Joshua and Gianmarco met at the North American university of Portland, where one was studying religion and the other philosophy. They promised each other that one day they would have a restaurant together. They have already achieved it. And her name is Franca, because they like the triple meaning of the word: sincerity, lingua franca because between the three of them they speak a mishmash of Catalan and English and free zone, which means a space without rules.