The claim raised in the collective dispute in the ruling of the National Court dated January 12, 2022 (EDJ 5020005) pertains to declaring the right of workers in a state of temporary disability due to COVID-19 to receive the occupational accident benefit paid by Social Security, along with the supplement provided for in Article 151 of the collective agreement, i.e., up to 100% of the remunerative components (qualification salary, seniority, modified conditions, wage guarantee allowance, etc.) and the 100% of any bonuses the worker would have received had they been working.

In its ruling of January 12, 2022, the National Court declared that, as an exceptional measure, emergency regulations related to COVID-19 have equated periods of isolation and contagion due to the disease (as also indicated by the National Court in its ruling of May 13, 2021) to occupational accidents, but only for the purpose of benefiting from the Social Security system’s benefits. However, this does not mean that the employer is under any additional contractual obligation, as stipulated in the collective agreement, to make payments or meet the commitments specified therein, which they are not required to do in this case.