Being on medical leave entails certain limitations that vary according to the ailment, but which involve the general principle of not doing anything that harms the worker's return to work and that, if not complied with, may involve the loss or suspension of the benefit or end in dismissal.
This week, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has ratified the dismissal of a worker who published on TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter videos dancing in high-heeled shoes, despite being on leave for having had bunion surgery.
The regulations do not establish a list of prohibited and permitted activities, but they do establish a series of general principles such as rejecting or abandoning the indicated treatment or acting fraudulently.
It also entails the loss or suspension of the right, working while on leave or not appearing for reviews or requirements from both Social Security and the Mutual Insurance Companies.
In that general framework, the key, according to various experts consulted by Efe, is that the activity performed while on leave may further harm that ailment.
"The important thing is that any activity that may harm health can be considered as affecting temporary disability," they point out from UGT, while recalling that there is jurisprudence in different senses from different superior courts of justice, but not from the Supreme Court.
From the Occupational Health Secretariat of CCOO, Jaime González explains to EFE that the Supreme Court "could rule if with the same facts and procedures there were two opposing positions from superior courts of justice, but that is not the case."
For González, this case in question is "very evident", because the facts go against the intention of a speedy recovery, while the evidence with which the company justifies its decision to dismiss was provided by the worker herself through her social networks.
"The activities you can do while on leave will depend on the illness you suffer at that time," they summarize from Mapfre, which develops several examples in an informative blog.
If the medical leave is due to lumbago or cervical pain, they exemplify, physical exertion cannot be performed.
However, in the case of a patient with anxiety or depression, physical exercise is totally compatible, and even recommended, to advance their improvement.
Can you travel while on leave?
Another of the most frequent doubts is whether you can travel while on leave and from CCOO they also refer to the cause of the disability.
Workers, they summarize in a guide, may "carry out any activity as long as it does not interfere with the medical treatment they are receiving, is compatible with their medical situation and does not harm or delay their recovery and return to work"
In principle, if the leave does not prevent travel, there is no provision that prohibits the worker from traveling.
But, they remind from the union, the worker must go to get the confirmation part of their leave from the doctor who issued it and must continue attending specialist appointments or rehabilitations, as well as those that any control body may cite them to.
"Do not criminalize sick leave"
Beyond specific cases, unions ask not to criminalize sick leave and remind that fraudulent cases are very minority.
"The message of criminalization and accusation of generalized fraud in temporary disability (IT) to workers and doctors has been resumed," they criticized in a recent statement.
The USO union adds that it misses "an analysis in which the failures in prevention, the lack of recognition of the work origin of many of the IT that the mutual insurance companies consider common or how working conditions and precariousness affect working people are addressed", according to a recent note.
In this context, USO is very critical of the Social Security's proposal to allow gradual incorporations after receiving discharge, an approach that is also rejected by UGT and CCOO and that would have to fit into the framework of a benefit with conditions and limits.