Overview
- Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo described absenteeism as a “cancer” and questioned whether workers on sick leave should receive the same pay, triggering a political backlash.
- The PP has spent the day clarifying that Feijóo was referring to suspected fraud, denying plans to cut convalescent pay and saying any reform would seek agreement with social partners.
- The government publicly rejected Feijóo’s remarks as a conflation of justified medical leave with fraud and demanded that any anti‑fraud measures be handled through the mesa del diálogo social.
- Major unions CCOO and UGT condemned the comments as an attack on the welfare model and warned that policing sick leave could damage public health by pressuring ill workers to attend work.
- Business groups acknowledged high absenteeism costs but urged technical fixes, more health resources and negotiated solutions, and the episode exposed rifts within the PP and political distancing from Vox.