Teleworking causes us, in some cases, to face situations that we do not know how to communicate. One of them occurs when we take sick leave that will keep us out of work for a few days: how the company should find out about our sick leave.
Historically, when the doctor delivered a low part to an employee, it was the responsibility of this deliver said part to the company to record this situation. Since April 2023, the situation has changed and workers are no longer required to comply with this procedure, since this process is automated and it is the Public Health Service or the mutual insurance company that is in charge of send this communication by telematic means.
However, just because the process is automated does not mean that employees do not have to inform our manager of our absence. Although there is no specific law that requires this, it is always advisable to inform our company to avoid problems. In addition, there is also the possibility that the agreement does include the obligation to notify of our situation of temporary disability.
It is not an obligation, but it is recommended
As we have already anticipated, unless this obligation is included in the agreement, there is no law that states that workers must inform their employers of the situation of temporary disability. Justice, however, does not say the same.
In the ruling of July 26, 2024 of the Superior Court of Justice of Asturias, it is stated that workers are obliged to report the status of their sick leave. Specifically, it refers to a case in which a worker did not report the extension of her leave after her company had sent her a burofax so that justify his absence or return to work with immediate effect. Upon receiving no response, the company decided to dismiss her on a disciplinary basis.
Unfair dismissal
The lawsuit filed by the worker argued that the dismissal had been discriminatory due to health status in which he was. However, the TSJ of Asturias did not consider it this way, although it did recognized the inadmissibility. Furthermore, stating that workers have the obligation to report any circumstance that prevents them from going to their workplace, referring to article 5 of the Workers’ Statute.
Said article says the following: “Workers have the following basic duties: a) Comply with the specific obligations of their job, in accordance with the rules of good faith and diligence.” Therefore, it is also not clear about this and could become subject to interpretation.
As we have been able to verify, except when our agreement makes explicit reference to this issue, we currently do not find any legal framework that obliges the worker to make this communication. However, as we have already mentioned, the Court has a recent ruling that indicates that, indeed, this obligation does exist. So the best thing we can do to avoid problems is to communicate it to our manager in order to avoid future problems related to our absence from work by trusting that the communication is done automatically.
