Germans will soon think twice before calling in sick, as they could have their wages docked under plans to toughen up the workforce. The Mail has more.
Employees take an average of 14.8 sick days per year in Germany – one of the highest rates in Europe and three times that in Britain.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz is reportedly considering allowing employers to cut their staff’s pay from the first day they take off sick.
The crackdown is aimed at encouraging those with minor illnesses such as a cold to come into the office, according to the German newspaper Bild.
And those who take five or fewer sick days in a year would be rewarded with an extra day’s holiday.
It comes after employers have claimed that abuse of the sick leave system is so widespread they have turned to private detectives to look into whether staff are really ill.
“Germany certainly has the highest number of sick days in Europe,” one Government insider told Bild. “Both coalition partners would like to reduce that.”
In his 2025 election campaign, Merz, the leader of the centre-Right Christian Democrats (CDU), vowed to crack down on spiralling sick leave.
He has previously spoken out against four-day work weeks and the idea of work-life balance, warning Germans that they must work harder and for longer, or else “we won’t be able to maintain this country’s prosperity”. …
Under the current rules, Germans can be signed off work on sick leave for up to five days by phoning their doctor and asking for a sick note.
But the CDU wants to change these rules so that workers have to visit a doctor’s office in person to get signed off.
Worth reading in full.
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I was surprised by the system my USA colleagues had. They had a fixed number of sick-days allocated. If they hadn’t used them by the new company year they took them as extra vacation. Trouble was they all took any outstanding days off at much the same time.
Isn’t that more like using up your annual leave to cover sickness? I bet the unions over here wouldn’t like that!
It’s an approach.
The distinction between that and giving everyone extra holiday and not paying them for the odd sick day is subtle.
Our sickness provision is fairly generous but worded in such a way that malingerers who are taking the piss can have their sick pay stopped after a certain number of days per year, unless they have a sick note from a doctor.
Classic bureaucratic, socialist state administration, forced to solve the problems they have created themselves with their policies. They’ll of course just make things worse again.
The administrative state is like nspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies creating a cascade of disasters while trying to maintain an image of authority and respectablility.
Why is this any business of the government (other than in relation to the people it employs directly)? Our firm has a policy in this regard which is set out in our staff handbook but we treat each case on its merits because every member of staff is an individual with a track record, a value to us and any firm in its right mind will want some discretion.
I took pride from getting through a year having not taken a single day off sick.
I don’t think I’ve taken more than a handful of days in total in the last 20 years.
I got through 11 years of full-time teaching with only 1 day off. Even though I wasn’t fit to teach, I still showed up at the start of the day to arrange work for my classes.
Unless you are a “sanctuary seeker” obviously.
I dread to think what the UK’s Green Party would propose. Presumably unlimited sick leave from day 1 for immigrants.
When it comes to Mr Vagrant and his looby-lou Green Party, it should be pointed out that the minute it becomes clear that they are in the power the UK will be in an economic crisis as borrowing costs soar and the government will be bankrupt.
A Green Party holding the balance of power is the real nightmare scenario – worse than anything we’ve experience in government in recent years, which is saying something.
How would that work in UK you cant get seen by the doc for 10 days after you call, soyou’d be back at work before you got a sick cert!