Our partner Jorge Arredondo spoke exclusively with Diario Financiero about the scope of SUSESO’s recent ruling on the use of technology to monitor medical leave.
Amid tighter controls on the misuse of sick leave—following various reports on public sector employees issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic—the Social Security Superintendency (Suseso) clarified the tools that oversight agencies may use to verify compliance with medical leave requirements.
In a ruling issued on July 1, the agency concluded that COMPINs and ISAPRES may not use active geolocation systems (GPS), facial recognition, biometrics, or other similar technologies to verify compliance with medical leave requirements, even if the employee gives consent.
“The regulations governing medical leave, work disability benefits, and the oversight powers of COMPINs and health insurance institutions neither provide for nor authorize the use of active geolocation systems for members to verify compliance with medical leave,” the document states.
Regarding the use of biometric verification or facial recognition systems, the document adds that current regulations do not provide for or authorize them either.
The text further states that the use of such mechanisms involves “the processing of sensitive personal data and the implementation of monitoring measures regarding members that lack express legal authorization under the legal framework applicable to medical leaves.”
The ruling came in response to an inquiry from an Isapre regarding the possibility of implementing such mechanisms to monitor compliance with medical leave.
In the authority’s view, the oversight powers of Compins and Isapres can only derive from the law and cannot be expanded through private agreements between the parties.
Thus, it emphasized that any potential incorporation of active geolocation mechanisms or biometric verification systems to monitor compliance with medical leave would require “express legal authorization defining their basis, scope, purposes, safeguards, and control mechanisms—a matter not currently addressed in existing regulations.”
Implications for Employers
Jorge Arredondo, a partner at az, explained that the ruling should be understood within the framework of the powers of the entities responsible for processing medical leave requests and not as a general prohibition on any type of monitoring. The specialist said that while the use of these technologies is prohibited, he added that the ruling “in no way prevents” employers from continuing to conduct home visits to verify compliance with sick leave, provided they always comply with current regulations.
In his view, the ruling “applies solely to bodies involved in processing medical leave, such as COMPINs and ISAPRES, and does not pertain to the monitoring measures that an employer may carry out.”
