The governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, has acknowledged this Thursday the "reflection" underway regarding labor absenteeism in Spain following the sharp increase in spending assumed by Social Security, a phenomenon he has linked to the "lack of coordination" between administrations, given that "competencies are not well defined."
During an event in Tenerife for the presentation of the institution's annual report, Escrivá pointed out that sick leave "has increased enormously" after the pandemic and stressed that it is a "cyclical" behavior, as absenteeism tends to decrease when unemployment is very high and to increase when the opposite occurs.
He remarked that the main impact of absenteeism falls on Social Security, which has seen its disbursements in this matter skyrocket to an "unparalleled" level compared to other EU countries. However, despite being the administration that bears the cost, it is not "the one that makes the decisions," beyond signing agreements with regional health services to introduce certain "improvements."
"Social Security develops agreements with health systems and autonomous communities to generate positive incentives in management, and information flows work well between Social Security and the health systems of the autonomous communities, and Social Security spends hundreds of millions of euros on this, on incentives," he highlighted.