Opponents say proposal, designed to tackle employee skiving, would fill up doctors’ waiting rooms unnecessarily
A German proposal to eliminate the possibility to get short-term sick leave from a doctor over the telephone as a means of cracking down on skiving has met with an outcry from labour groups and the medical profession.
Germans enjoy some of the most generous employee illness policies in Europe, a fact which the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, says is undermining efforts to kickstart the EU’s biggest economy whose growth has largely stalled since 2022.
At a regional campaign event last weekend, Merz said staff took an average 14.5 sick days per year – “too high”, he said.
“That’s nearly three weeks in which people in Germany don’t work due to illness,” he said. “Is that really correct? Is that really necessary?”
