Sick leave: employees no longer have to hand the medical note to the company

For decades the picture was always the same: an employee on sick leave dropping by the office — or asking a colleague for a favour — to hand in the paper medical note before the deadline. That is no longer necessary. Employees do not have to deliver the sick note to the company: the whole process now runs electronically between the medical service, Social Security and the company.

The change was introduced by Royal Decree 1060/2022, of 27 December, which amends Royal Decree 625/2014 and was published in Spain's Official State Gazette (BOE) on 5 January 2023, taking effect on 1 April 2023. Three years on, there are still companies and workers who haven't adapted their internal processes — and the risk of penalties falls on the company.

What exactly changed

Previously, the doctor issued two copies of the note: one for the employee and one that the employee had to get to the company within a set deadline. Now only one copy is issued, which stays with the person affected, and the delivery step disappears.

How the information flows now

• The health centre or the mutual insurer gives the employee their copy of the sick leave, confirmation or discharge note.
• On the same day or the next working day, the medical service reports the note to the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
• The INSS passes the notification on to the company electronically, immediately.
• The company transmits its share of the data to the INSS through the RED system, within a maximum of 3 working days from receipt.

The royal decree covered the entire temporary incapacity cycle: not just the initial sick note, but also the confirmation notes and the discharge note. None of them has to be handed to the company on paper any more.

What the employee still has to do

The paperwork may be gone, but the duty to inform is not. The employee must notify the company as soon as possible, through whatever internal channel is in place, so the organisation can reorganise the work, cover the post and manage any preventive measures needed.

The company's obligation: 3 working days via the RED system

This is where the change shifted the burden. The company must transmit to the INSS, through the Electronic Data Transmission System (RED), the data set out by ministerial order — immediately and, in any case, within a maximum of three working days counted from receipt of the sick leave notification.

The deadline is short and starts running when the electronic notification arrives, not when someone at the company happens to notice it. Missing it can lead to penalties. If you want a sense of the scale of employment-related penalties in Spain, you can use our penalty calculator.

Checklist to avoid missing the deadline

• Assign a clear owner to check Social Security electronic notifications every working day.
• Make sure the digital certificate and RED system authorisation are valid, and that more than one person has access.
• Define a single internal channel for employees to report sick leave: phone, app or email, but always the same one.
• Log the receipt date of every notification so you can prove you responded within the deadline.
• Plan for holidays and long weekends: the 3-working-day clock doesn't stop because the person in charge is away.

The hidden impact: shifts, rotas and working time

Sick leave isn't just an administrative formality: it's an empty post, usually with no advance warning and with the person already out of service. In sectors with rotating shifts — hospitality, retail, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing — every absence means redoing the day's rota, and often the whole week's.

If work schedules live in a shared spreadsheet, that recalculation is slow and error-prone: shifts get duplicated, minimum rest periods are overlooked, or overtime builds up unchecked. And since working time has to be recorded either way, those problems eventually surface in the time record.

What slips out of control when someone calls in sick

• Uncovered shifts filled in a rush, generating unplanned overtime.
• Minimum rest periods between shifts breached while redoing the rota under pressure.
• Misclassified absences that distort your indicators and holiday calculations.
• Receipts and messages scattered across emails, chats and drawers.

How Horalia helps you manage sick leave

Horalia doesn't replace the RED system — that transmission is yours or your payroll advisor's — but it does solve everything that happens inside the company around an absence: the notification, the classification, shift cover and document traceability.

The whole internal sick leave process in one place

• Employees report sick leave from their phone, with an instant alert to their manager and the date and time logged.
• Classification of the absence in absence management, automatically reflected in the team calendar.
• Recalculation of shifts and rotas to cover the empty post while respecting legal rest periods.
• Safekeeping of receipts and communications in document management with electronic signature.
• A working-time record consistent with the absence, with no phantom clock-ins or misallocated hours.

Want to see how this would work at your company? Discover Horalia or try it for free and see how sick leave is handled end to end, with no paperwork in between.