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New Rules re ´baja y alta laboral´ i.e. notification of temporary incapacity to work or notification of capacity to resume normal work activities. Both issued either by NHS medico (for ordinary illnesses or injuries – ´contingencias comunes´) or by medico under contract with a Mutua (for work related illness or injury – ´contingencias profesionales´). I mention the Spanish terms on purpose, so they will hopefully make sense to you when you come across them in a situation where you need to deal with the administrative aspect of sick leave. As outlined in Real Decreto 625/2014, of July 18th, valid as of September 1st, but most of the stipulations mentioned here only as of January 1st 2015 or even March 1st 2015.
A copy of the ´baja´ needs to be presented to your employer within 3 days. You don´t have to do so in person, you can use email, ordinary mail or ask someone to drop it off for you.
Once done ´de alta´ again, you need to return to work the day after the date of the ´alta´, in the case of that being a usual workday, of course. Copy of the ´alta´ needs to be presented to your employer within 24 hours.
When on sickleave, you used to need to go to your medico to get a confirmation of your incapacity to work every 7 days.
The new rules:
– when sickleave is estimated to be under 5 days – you can ask your medico for ´baja´ and ´alta´ papers at same visit. Mind you, you still maintain the right to visit him again on the proposed day of ´alta´ if you feel you are not able to resume work yet.
NB If you only visit your doctor on the 4th day of your sickleave, you will receive the combi baja/alta paperwork as well, but NOTE that you need to present this paperwork to your employer within 24 hrs! If the medico decides you are not fit to work yet, he will proceed with another ´baja´ of which you also need to present a copy to your employer within 24 hrs, so at day 5 of your sickleave.
– when sickleave is estimated to be between 5 and 30 days, after your first visit to get your ´baja´, you will need a repeat appointment with either your own medico or the Mutua´s medico within 7 calendar days to either receive ´alta´ or confirmation of ´baja´. To be repeated every 14 days after that if the ´baja´ continues.
– when sickleave is estimated to be between 30 and 60 days, after your first visit to get your ´baja´, confirmation within 7 calendar days and every 28 days after that.
– when sickleave is estimated to last longer than 60 days, after first visit, second one within 14 days, after that every 35 days.
The Mutua can call on you to make an appointment to assess your situation (reconocimiento medico) as of day one of your ´baja´ (this used to be as of day 16), propose a date to resume work etc. Seg. Social and NHS will have up to 9 days to respond to the latter (as of March 1st 2015). The proposed appointment to assess your situation must be made with no less than 4 workdays notice.
Note 1: the Mutua can also do this in case of ordinary – non work related illness, much to the dismay of the NHS and the syndicates, that feel that in practice, the medicos from the Mutuas will be supervising those of the NHS.
Note 2: if you are unable to make the appointment, you must inform the Mutua, preferably before or at the latest on the proposed date, and make another appointment. Non appearance without justification, presented within the timeframe of 10 days following the appointment, will lead to provisional suspension of your sick leave as of the date following the proposed appointment.
New is that the Mutua, that decides whether your claim that your illness is the result of work-related causes -´contingencias profesionales´ is justified, in the case that they decide it is not – must justifiy their reasons in writing to you.
You can still claim sickleave through the Seguridad Social in that case – for ´contingencias comunes´ and the doctors of the NHS can initiate a re-evaluation of the cause of your illness if they suspect it is work-related after all.
Another change in procedure is that the Mutua, in case they have proposed to the Inspection of the NHS to give you the ´alta´, they must inform you of this proposal. Only in the case of ´contingencias comunes´ of course, as in cases of ´contingencias profesionales´ the Mutua decides on its own.
If you do not agree with a decision of the Mutua to declare you fit for work again, you have up to 10 days to appeal. Same decision of the INSS only allows 4 days to appeal.
Good to know perhaps as well that Mutua´s are obliged to provide ´libros de quejas y reclamaciones´. If you file a complaint against a Mutua, the complaint will be sent on directly to the Dirección General de Ordenación de la Seguridad Social within 10 days, accompanied by a report of said Mutua stating their considerations re the case. You can also file your complaint directly, online, on the website of said Dirección General or that of the Secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social (should be possible to do so as of January 1st 2015).
