How many days can you miss work without a doctor's note?

Colds, migraines, gastroenteritis? There are many minor ailments that can prevent you from going to work for one, two or three days. Obviously, you need to justify this to your employer, otherwise they may take action against you. That is why we thought it would be useful to answer the question of how many days I can be off work without sick leave.

Sick leave and supporting documents

Many people use the concepts of sick leave and medical justification as synonyms, when in fact they are not. In this sense, medical leave is an official document issued by a family doctor that certifies the temporary incapacity of the worker to carry out his/her professional duties due to illness or accident.

On the other hand, the proof of illness or accident is another document, which may be drawn up by a family doctor or an emergency doctor, attesting that the worker has suffered a certain mishap. It may precede the sick leave, but it may also not exist.

The key is in the three days

The document that allows the worker to access financial benefits from the Social Security in the event of being unable to attend work is the sick leave. However, the Social Security does not begin to pay the corresponding amounts until the fourth day after the event that caused the temporary incapacity.

This is the reason why, in most cases, medical leave is not issued to workers who have a minor ailment that will take up to 3 days to recover from. In such cases, what they are given is a medical certificate attesting to the existence of the health problem that has prevented them from going to work.

Nuances about the medical certificate

The above is known as medical justification for missing one, two or three days. As we have already said, the Social Security will not pay anything to the worker for this period, although it is true that some collective agreements and individual agreements include the possibility of the company paying the salary corresponding to these days.

This is mainly due to the fact that companies see the provision of this document as proof of absence. It is true that the legislation in force does not specifically say anything about this, but they all accept it. If the discomfort persists after the aforementioned three days, it is essential to present the temporary incapacity report.

Missing work without justification

There are people who decide to miss a day of work due to illness without medical justification. This is certainly a very bad decision, because in this case the company will not pay the corresponding salary, even if it is agreed in the contract or in the sectoral agreement. After all, the absence will be considered as an unjustified absence.

So, how many days can I miss work without justification in Spain?

The Workers' Statute is very ambiguous in this respect, as it does not establish any specific rules. However, it does make it clear that the employer has the right to take disciplinary action if it can prove that the absence is unjustified.

First of all, you have the possibility of not paying the day's pay. But you can also impose other types of sanctions, such as additional days without employment and pay. You can even go as far as dismissal on disciplinary grounds if the employee persists in his or her attitude.

Other reasons for absence from work without sick leave

However, illness or a minor accident are not the only reasons why a person may be absent from work for a period of less than three days. These include, for example:

• Family obligations: all employees have the right to be absent from work if they have an unavoidable family obligation, such as a meeting with their children's guardian or a doctor's appointment for a close relative. However, the fact must be justified with a document reflecting the situation.
• Other causes of force majeure: this would be the case of the death of a close relative, problems with public transport that prevent you from getting to work or a serious problem at home, such as a fire or flood. In these cases, the employer must be notified as soon as possible and the absence must be justified in any way possible.

In addition, the law includes a series of paid leaves of absence from work. This is the case, for example, of leave for marriage, moving house, birth or adoption. However, these are considered separately.

At this point, we think you already know the answer to the question of whether you can take unjustified leave from work: no. If you do, you must pay attention to the following points. If you do, there are both short-term consequences (no pay for the day) and long-term consequences (higher penalties and even disciplinary dismissal). So if you have to be absent from work for any reason, try to justify it as best you can.