The Círculo de Empresarios has warned this Wednesday of “a sharp increase in absenteeism from work in Spain after the pandemic”, which is fundamentally explained, according to this business organization, by accident or temporary disability (sick off from work). In a statement they have denounced that this situation “already has worrying social and ethical issues”, which is why they demand “a national agreement that involves public administrations, companies and social agents to stop this phenomenon.”
For the Circle, sick leave is behind most of the increase in absenteeism in recent years. And an “unsustainable” situation has been reached, in which this organization denounces. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in the third quarter of 2025, 4.9% of employed people did not work in the reference week (excluding vacations and permits), almost two points more than before the pandemic.
For this reason, they have decided to demand this “National Agreement against Absenteeism”, in which, according to their proposal, the State, business organizations, unions and all the agents involved would participate. Its objective would be to “correct dysfunctions, strengthen the health and administrative management of temporary disabilities, review existing incentives and reincorporation.”
This business organization ensures that the rise in absenteeism “does not respond solely to a deterioration in the health of workers.” Their analysis indicates that, although certain pathologies have increased after the pandemic, the main explanatory factor for the increase in sick leave “is caused by diseases that are difficult to diagnose, repetition of episodes of temporary disability and their long duration.”
In fact, they point out that absenteeism associated with “repeaters” is the fundamental factor that explains practically the entire increase in the rate of absence due to temporary disability experienced between 2018 and 2023. In fact, in Spain the average duration of sick leave exceeds 38 days, compared to 25-30 days in countries such as Germany or the Netherlands, and more than 16% of the processes last more than a year.
The problem, they add from this think tank“it is aggravated by the saturation of primary care, the lack of administrative control and coordination, the loss of acting capacity of mutual societies and a regulatory and judicial framework that has drastically reduced the incentives and tools to combat the abuse of these practices.”
