Medical leave in Extremadura: doctors now see your real occupation before signing the report

Key data

Physicians of the Extremaduran Health Service (SES) no longer depend exclusively on what workers tell them about their usual occupation. Since October 5, 2026, thanks to the agreement signed between the INSS, TGSS and the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, physicians have direct access to employment affiliation data registered with Social Security at the moment of issuing a sick leave report for temporary incapacity.

The stated objective is to improve objectivity in determining temporary incapacity: if the physician knows that the worker performs intense physical activity or operates heavy machinery, they can assess more accurately whether the illness truly prevents them from performing their work. This agreement is based on article 77.1 of the Consolidated Text of the General Law on Social Security (TRLGSS) and Law 40/2015 on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.

What does this regulation establish?

The agreement regulates the transfer of information regarding affiliation from INSS and TGSS to SES. In practice, when a physician in the Extremaduran public health system attends a worker requesting sick leave, they can consult their actual affiliation status: type of contract, registered work activity and usual occupation.

Until this agreement came into force, the physician only had information that the worker themselves provided verbally during the medical examination. Now they have objective and verifiable data directly from Social Security.

The key aspects of the agreement are:

• Transfer of employment affiliation data from INSS and TGSS to SES for use in issuing sick leave reports.
• Temporal scope: temporary incapacity processes in the first 365 days of duration.
• Processing of sensitive personal data: the transfer involves personal data, so the agreement requires strict compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Spanish data protection regulations.
• Legal basis: article 77.1 of TRLGSS and Law 40/2015.

Economic and operational impact

For companies with workers in Extremadura, this change has direct operational consequences for managing medical leave:

• Greater rigor in issuing sick leave reports: with access to objective data, physicians can issue reports with greater precision, which can reduce unjustified absences or shorten IT processes that do not correspond to the worker's actual occupation.
• Impact on contributions and replacement costs: more precise management of IT processes can reduce indirect costs associated with prolonged worker absence.
• Data protection obligations: companies must ensure that their affiliation data with Social Security is correctly updated, as this is the information physicians will consult. Incorrect or outdated data can generate problems in medical assessment.
• GDPR compliance: although the transfer occurs between public bodies, companies must review their internal policies for processing employee data to ensure consistency with information registered with Social Security.

Who does it affect?

• Workers on medical leave in Extremadura whose IT processes have a duration of up to 365 days.
• Physicians of the Extremaduran Health Service (SES) who issue sick leave and return-to-work reports.
• Companies with workers affiliated in Extremadura, especially those with high turnover or sectors with higher IT incidence (construction, industry, care services).
• Human Resources departments and labor advisors who manage temporary incapacity processes in the Extremaduran region.
• Data protection officers of companies with employees in Extremadura, given that the transfer involves processing of sensitive personal data.

Practical example

A worker at a construction company based in Badajoz requests medical leave for lower back pain. Before October 5, 2026, the SES physician only knew what the worker told them about their job: "I do office tasks," even though their occupation registered with Social Security is actually first-class construction worker, involving intense physical effort.

With the new agreement, the physician can directly consult the worker's affiliation data and verify that their usual activity involves significant physical load. This allows them to assess more objectively whether the lower back pain truly incapacitates them for their specific work, adjusting the duration of the sick leave report to the actual situation.

For the company, this translates into more predictable absence management and the importance of keeping professional category and occupation data updated with Social Security.

What should companies do now?

1. Verify that affiliation data for employees in Extremadura is updated with Social Security: professional category, usual occupation and type of contract. These are the data that SES physicians will consult.
2. Review internal temporary incapacity management protocols to adapt them to the new scenario, where medical assessment will have objective information about the worker's actual occupation.
3. Update the company's data protection policies to ensure GDPR compliance in relation to affiliation data that can now be consulted by SES.
4. Inform employees that their employment affiliation data may be consulted by SES physicians as part of a medical leave process, thus complying with GDPR transparency requirements.
5. Coordinate with the labor advisor or HR department to identify possible discrepancies between workers' actual occupation and that registered with Social Security, and correct them before they generate problems in future medical assessments.

Official source

Consult complete regulation in official source

Notice: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, consult a qualified professional. Source: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-20726