Ignacio Sevilla Soler, business director of Afianza, warns that absenteeism has ceased to be a cyclical problem linked to sick leave to become a structural challenge that forces to rethink the Law of Labor.
According to the expert, the phenomenon already accounts for 5.4% of Spanish GDP and its true core is not in the total volume of casualties, but in the increasing chronicling of certain processes.
- The cost of absenteeism is skyrocketing: In 2023 it reached 85,174 million euros in Spain, according to data from Mutua Universal Activa.
- The profile of the problem has changed: More than 50% of the casualties are concentrated in musculoskeletal disorders and mental health, pathologies with high recurrence and long duration.
- The regulatory framework is short: designed for classic physical risks, it shows obvious limitations to new scenarios of mental health and unrecognized disability.
From decline management to functional capacity management
According to Sevilla Soler, the system faces an increasingly marked duality: young workers with frequent short-term casualties and older workers with longer processes, linked to chronic pathologies. This is shifting the focus of management: it is no longer enough to determine whether or not the worker is disabled, but to assess what he can do and under what conditions he can continue to develop his professional activity.
This is compounded by a phenomenon that is often invisible, disability not recognized: more and more workers present relevant functional limitations without formal administrative recognition, which creates legal uncertainty and favours the chronification or expulsion from the labour market.
Law 2/2025, a turning point
The Afianza expert points out the recent Law 2/2025 as a key change of course: the norm redefines the treatment of permanent disability, shifting the axis from a purely providentary logic towards a model that prioritizes the adaptation of the job and the relocation of the worker.
This change has direct legal consequences for companies. The company now assumes a reinforced duty of prior analysis before making extintive decisions: an inadequate assessment of the possibilities of adaptation may result in nullity of dismissal, infringement of fundamental rights and significant economic consequences.
A paradigm shift in three pillars
For Sevilla Soler, labor absenteeism can no longer be addressed with isolated measures. Its proposal goes through three pillars:
- Early and data-based diagnosis, capable of identifying processes with a risk of chronification.
- Multidisciplinary integrationcoordinating occupational health, risk prevention, organization and legal strategy.
- Functional capacity management, aimed at adapting the workplace and sustainability of the system.
As the business director of Afianza concludes, the company ceases to be a passive subject to assume an active role in the management of occupational health. The challenge, he says, is to build a model that reconciles social protection, legal certainty and organizational viability, since those who anticipate this change will not only reduce the impact of absenteeism, but will be better positioned in a working environment in full transformation.
In Afianza we accompany companies in adapting their policies for managing absenteeism and in complying with the new regulatory framework derived from Law 2/2025, helping them to reduce legal risks and build more sustainable work environments.
You can read the full article in:
- Human Capital: Labour absenteeism, a structural challenge that requires rethinking labour law
