2024-10-29 04:45:00
The National Institute of Social Security (INSS) retained in his place an independent doctor specialized in occupational medicine – dedicated to the clinic of work-related illnesses or accidents – who carried out his duties despite being found to be suffering from serious psychiatric pathologies. He had to come to his office and see patients even though he himself suffered from post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This happened after the worker, after a period of absence due to illness, requested his inability to work and the INSS rejected it in 2022 on the basis of a report from the Institut Català d’Avaluacions Mèdiques (ICAM), which stated that the worker had a “clinical problem” that was not an impediment to carrying out any work activity. Now, a Social Court in Barcelona has recognized absolute permanent disability and his right to receive 100% of his pension with retroactive effect upon cessation of activity.
The ruling to which EL PAÍS had access, which is not definitive, indicates that the clinical conditions of this worker are not compatible with his work. And the jurisprudence recalls this, which highlights that “to evaluate the degree of disability, rather than addressing the accidents, it is necessary to address the limitations that they represent to the performance of the work activity”. In this case, the impact of his pathology was important. The worker, now 65, suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome due to an episode that occurred in childhood. From the Toro law firm, where the lawyer Izaskun Aldabe represented the public employee, they underline that already in his adolescence “obsessive personality traits emerged in him such as extreme perfectionism and demanding of himself, the fear of contact with dirt with excessive washing rituals, avoidance behaviors, hypertrophied sense of responsibility and egosyntonic need for order and symmetry.
It was 2017, and especially after 2019, when his condition worsened, “with cognitive, attention and concentration failures, the need to repeatedly check things, as well as indications and prescriptions for his patients”. Among other things, according to the sentence, the doctor would have “repeated phone calls to patients to make sure he had not made mistakes in his medical activity”, suffered from insomnia and had lost 20 kilos. At that time, he received sick leave.
However, in May 2022, the INSS rejected his request for work disability, arguing that his pathology did not prevent him from carrying out his activity, and on the basis of the ICAM report. The law firm explains that a complaint and complaint were filed, providing medical reports certifying that the worker suffered from the following clinical condition: “Severe, chronic, recurrent major depressive disorder without therapeutic response, severe and chronic long-term mental disorder. torpid evolution with sadness, tearfulness, apathy, asthenia, anorexia, loss of illusions, ideas of death, sleep disturbances, fears, restlessness, irritability and episodes of aggression, severe anxiety attacks, lack of concentration and feelings of uselessness, as well as ” a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder with severe difficulties in daily living.”
The judge, after having specified in the sentence which treatments the worker has undergone, and after having collected the reports provided by the parties, concludes that the patient’s conditions “have not improved and seriously compromise the actor’s functionalism”. He appreciates his difficulty in making professional decisions and responsibilities, and recognizes that his pathologies “frankly interfere with the ability to carry out any job”. Consequently, it declares that the worker has the right to absolute permanent disability, and to receive a pension equal to 100% of his regulatory base, equal to 3,309.32 euros. It orders the INSS to pay this pension retroactively to the cessation of its activity, in addition to any improvements which have occurred since then.
#judge #recognizes #absolute #incapacity #doctor #suffering #depression #retained #Social #Security #Economy