Spain: Social Security Institute (INSS) will send the sick leave reports directly to the companies

The January 5, 2023 edition of the Official State Gazette published Royal Decree 1060/2022 of December 27, 2022, amending Royal Decree 625/2014 of July 18, 2014 on certain elements of the management and monitoring of temporary incapacity processes in the first three hundred and sixty-five days of their terms. The royal decree has done away with the requirement for a paper copy of the medical’s report to be delivered to the worker, and with the obligation for it to be submitted to the employer by the employee.

Firstly, it states that it will be the Spanish Social Security Institute (INSS) that remotely notifies employers of the purely administrative identification particulars relating to medical’s reports for sick leave, confirmation and date of return to work, issued by doctors from the public health service or a mutual insurance company. This notification must be made, at the latest, on the first business day following the date of receipt of these particulars.

It also requires employers to send the particulars that will be determined by ministerial order to the INSS on the RED system used to send electronic data, immediately and in all cases within three business days from receipt of the notification of temporary incapacity leave. That sending system will not be mandatory where the worker belongs to a collective with respect to which the company or employer does not have to join the RED system.

Lastly, other amendments have been added. One is the new option, in any of the processes set out in the royal decree, for the doctor to be able to determine that the necessary medical examination will take place in a shorter period than that specified in each case. It has also introduced the option for employers to send the authorities any additional information they require to manage and monitor an employee’s temporary incapacity status and the related benefit, without needing a prior report submitted by the worker.

The royal decree will enter into force on April 1, 2023 and will apply to processes that are in progress on that date if they have not completed more than 365 days of their terms.