The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has defended this Thursday that the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is "more right than a saint" in his comments on sick leave and has lashed out against the "easy banner policy," which she has described as "absurd." At the same time, she has criticized "pijoteros rulers" who, according to her, get "indignant" in the name of workers but then "legislate against them."
"When one is close to reality and talks to companies, when one talks to the self-employed, one knows what is happening with the problem of sick leave. Obviously, President Feijóo is not talking about a person who is sick. He is not referring to a pregnant woman if she has complications or is in the last months of her pregnancy. We are not talking about a person who has cancer, who has a sudden illness, who has any problem," the Madrid president claimed in a forum organized by the newspaper '20 minutos'.
Ayuso made these statements after Feijóo stated that absenteeism "is a cancer" and questioned whether an employee on sick leave earns the same as when they are active. At this point, the regional leader emphasized that the PP opts for "balance," defending public-private collaboration and rejecting "savage capitalism."
In contrast, she accused the central government of promoting "constant disincentive in everything" and of applying "indiscriminate" taxes accompanied by regulations that she considers absurd and that "go against reality."
As she has stressed, this framework causes many companies to want to expand their staff and "cannot" due to these obstacles. "Lately, in Spain, legislation is only made to make hiring suspicious. For the person who has two or three employees to be very suspicious. And if they have a small profit margin, to be a person to be persecuted," she lamented.
"Many people could avoid sick leave"
In her opinion, this approach responds to "communism" which, as she said, is promoted by the Executive. She gave the self-employed as an example, pointing out that they are "the people who have the least sick leave," which, in her opinion, shows that there are many situations that "could be avoided."
"Furthermore, it is unfair to his own colleagues, because when a person stops going to work, that work falls on many colleagues at times and it affects his own company. Because if the company is small and has an absenteeism problem, it can end up closing. Who loses? We all lose," she stressed.
Díaz Ayuso added that, within the Community of Madrid's responsibilities, they try to manage sick leave with doctors through mutual insurance companies. However, she warned that "balance and competitiveness" are lost when the idea of "working less and earning more" is solely promoted.