Employees will no longer have to hand in their sick-leave certificates to the company

Starting April 1, 2023, employees will no longer have to hand in their sick-leave certificate to the company. This is set out in Royal Decree 1060/2022, of December 27, which amends certain aspects of the management of temporary incapacity (incapacidad temporal, IT) and has been published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).

The new regulation eliminates the employees’ obligation to hand in a paper copy of the medical certificate to the company.

Under the new streamlined procedure, the National Social Security Institute (INSS) will notify the company electronically of the data in the sick-leave and discharge certificates issued by doctors or the mutual insurance company (mutua).

Below, we explain in more detail how the process will now work.

Main changes. How will IT sick leave be processed?

Under the new rules, when a member of your workforce goes to the doctor, he or she will no longer be required to give you the IT sick-leave certificate.

1. The doctor will issue the medical certificate, which may be a sick-leave, discharge, or confirmation certificate, and will give a copy of it to the employee.

2. The Public Health Service, the mutual insurance company, or the collaborating company will then send the data contained in the medical certificate to the INSS electronically on the first business day following its issuance.

3. The INSS, in turn, will notify the company of the identifying data of the employee’s medical certificates. In this way, the company will be able to learn of its employee’s temporary incapacity status. This notification must be made no later than the first business day following its receipt.

When a confirmation or discharge occurs, the public health service or your mutual insurance company must also send an electronic notification immediately or on the first business day following the issuance of the certificate.

For sick leave of less than 5 calendar days, the person may request a new medical examination for the day indicated as the discharge date, and the doctor may issue a sick-leave confirmation certificate if he or she considers it appropriate.

For periods lasting between 5 and 30 calendar days, the doctor or the mutual insurance company will issue a sick-leave certificate indicating the scheduled date of the medical review, which will be no later than 7 calendar days after the initial date. At the review, a discharge certificate or a sick-leave confirmation certificate will be issued. Successive confirmation certificates may not be issued more than 14 calendar days apart.

For sick leave lasting between 31 and 60 days, after the first sick-leave confirmation, subsequent confirmation certificates may not be issued more than 28 calendar days apart.

For periods lasting more than 61 days, the scheduled medical review will be no later than 14 calendar days after the start of the sick leave. If the sick leave is confirmed, successive certificates may not be issued more than 35 calendar days apart.

When do these changes to the processing of IT sick leave enter into force?

These changes will not apply immediately. Under the sole final provision of the Royal Decree, the regulation will enter into force on the first day of the third month following its publication in the Official State Gazette.

In other words, these rules will enter into force on April 1, 2023, so until then you will have to continue handing in your sick-leave certificate to the company.