Sick leave for workers due to mental health rises by 69% in five years in Granada

In Granada, according to data provided to IDEAL by the Association of Mutual Accident Insurers (AMAT), sick leave due to mental health disorders has seen a growth of 69% since 2019.

In this financial year, the last full year available, 3,534 temporary disability cases related to mental health reasons were processed at businesses in the province. This is a record high, and although the data for 2023 is not closed, it indicates that the trend continues to rise. Overall, there are more sick days than ever before because Social Security enrollment is at historic highs, that is, because there are also more workers than ever before. However, while temporary incapacitations derived from common emergencies grew by an average of 19% in the same period, those for mental health, within this category, increased by 69%.

These are the data issued by mutual insurance companies that protect 79.66% of workers in temporary disability operations resulting from common emergencies and which in Granada cover, according to the last reference from November 2023, more than 225,000 workers.

The average duration of mental health sick leave is also increasing, averaging 118.29 days in the last year assessed, an increase of 11.34%.

Costs practically doubled in the same period. Last year, sick leave due to the mental health of their workers cost companies in the province €9.9 million, while the impact on mutual insurance companies amounted to €14.7 million.

Unions

The pandemic “which has marked before and after” is one factor behind the increase in sick leave due to mental health, but the UGT and CC OO unions also agree to link job insecurity and “increasing” working styles. With this phenomenon affecting both less trained and more qualified workers.

“These people go to the doctor and are overwhelmed by their work schedules, the demands of their bosses and the workload,” explains Luis Miguel Gutiérrez, Secretary General of the UGT Granada union, who expressed concern about the growing number of sick leaves due to mental health. In number as well as in duration.

According to Yogitista's analysis, women, especially young people, are among the groups suffering the greatest mental health losses. “Young people are a generation more sensitive to recognizing their psychological suffering than previous generations, who often directed it in another way,” he says.

He insists that many symptoms of depression or anxiety are directly due to job insecurity, “which sickens and kills.” “We have to put work-based mental health issues at the center of the debate. Stress, mobbing, burnout syndrome, discrimination against women at work… an important part of the causes of mental health problems. But also, low salaries, overtime, difficulty reconciling personal and professional life, long-term unemployment or poor working conditions,” Gutierrez emphasizes.

Not only the origin, but the solutions to increases in sick leave, in his opinion, are largely found in the workplaces themselves. For example, it points to reduced workloads “and organizational measures that reduce stress and strain on the workforce” among other things. Therefore, the head of the General Union of Workers’ Territory believes that it is urgent to confront the problem “from the perspective of searching for solutions, and not punishing people who suffer from these diseases.”

In the same vein, Roberto Arreaza, Secretary General of CC OO Granada Services, focuses on job insecurity as one of the main risk factors, as well as the instability experienced by young people who have jobs that do not allow them to become independent. The nucleus of the family or subsistence.

“There are many factors that influence. Work methods are becoming more demanding, and for productivity, the goals set by companies and work dynamics require more and more dedication in absolute terms bordering on inhumanity. “Companies require more time and multiple skills that are not accompanied by the tools to meet these demands.”

Arreaza also warns that while mental health sick leave is widespread, it is affecting Granada in particular because more jobs are being created in “riskier sectors such as hospitality and trade where there is not an adequate work culture to address these issues.” . “.” Where it is difficult to even get a job to achieve minimum basic living conditions.

Likewise, both CCOO and UGT representatives point to the need to correct the shortcomings of an “overwhelmed” public health system that, in their opinion, does not have the flexibility to diagnose and treat mental health problems of the working population in a timely manner. .

“It will be necessary to have a psychologist in every health center, and a more flexible consultation, because they cannot cope with it,” says the leader of the General Union of Workers, who recalls that the majority of people “do not have the money for a weekly consultation and the public health psychologist sees him in Three or four months.

Ariza also demands that more public health resources “are today most effective for diagnosing and treating mental health problems in the working population” and that mutual insurance companies declare more mental health-related work accidents and address appropriate treatments “so that they can be treated much faster than It's happening today.”

Unions also do not forget the importance of prevention in companies and public administrations themselves, “avoiding widespread outsourcing and lack of quality in the management of prevention services.”

“For example, we train our representatives so that they can identify problems with harassment, excessive workloads, or other more obvious problems such as extended working hours, etc. and suggest solutions through direct intervention in the company, such as conducting psychosocial risk assessments,” concludes Ariza.