Parliament has a special leave regime, implemented in Law 10,618, which offers legislators the possibility of being absent from their duties in many cases without losing their pay for the day.
The leaves can be due to illness, maternity or paternity, for “official” missions, for “notorious” obligations that are of “public interest and inherent to their academic investiture or political representation”, for personal reasons or “without expression of cause”. ”.
As published by the weekly Search This Thursday, from the beginning of the current legislature until March 21, Parliament took 4,482 days of leave, averaging 45.27 days per legislator.
The Colorado Party is the political force whose legislators are absent the most, averaging 55.20 days per legislator. It is followed by the Broad Front with 45.7; the National Party with 42.7 and Cabildo Abierto with 41.6.
Absences are explain
75% of the licenses are taken under the argument of “personal reasons”, according to the weekly. The legislation enables officials to enjoy up to 30 days a year of this type, which must be approved at all times by the Chamber in a vote.
Once again, it was the Colorado Party that used this type of leave the most, which offers no explanation for the absence, with an average of 43.6 days per legislator. It is followed by the National Party with 33.8; Cabildo Abierto with 33.7 and, finally, the Broad Front with 32.38.
15% of leave requests are due to illness, averaging 6.7 days per legislator: the Broad Front is the one that uses this mechanism the most (8.8 days per legislator), followed by the Colorados (7.6), the nationalists (5.4) and the lobbyists (2.7).
Law 10,618 establishes that licenses cannot exceed 180 days in a row, but an exception approved in 2020, precisely during the pandemic, indicates that this limit can be exceeded if the legislator is part of the risk groups susceptible to COVID-19 . Thus, the Frente Amplio deputy for Canelones, Orquídea Minetti, has been absent for 122 days and Margarita Libschitz occupies her seat. Minetti requested the license for forming a population at risk and a traffic accident prolonged her absence. Another example of the use of this exception is the case of Frente Amplio senator Danilo Astori, who had a serious respiratory illness after the start of the pandemic and who has had medical orders not to attend the plenary since March 2020.
The nationalist deputy for Treinta y Tres, Dardo Sánchez, has also used 83 days of leave to be absent due to health problems.
As for substitutes, they receive $9,300 per day worked if the leave is less than 15 days. If it is more than that term, they receive a salary in proportion to what a regular parliamentarian earns by law.
