When the Federal Statistical Office reported in January that the average number of sick days taken by workers in Germany was 15.1 in 2023, many companies suggested this was due to work stoppage.
Germany is now “world champion when it comes to sick leave,” said Oliver Bäte, CEO of the Allianz insurance group.
But the doctors had a different opinion. “What I am seeing in my practice these days is exactly what recent reports from health insurance companies show: more and more people are coming to my practice with acute infections,” Markus Beier, Federal President of the German association of general practitionerstold DW. “To some extent, this is still the late effect of the pandemic.”
Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, also sees the increase in infections as the main reason for the record number of cases. the sick. “Playing sick doesn’t happen on a large scale,” he said. Since the coronavirus pandemic, more people in general I took sick leave because of infectious diseases. During the two or three years of confinement and infection prevention, infection prevention has taken on a different meaning.
“What is even more worrying is that more and more patients are suffering from mental illnesses and chronic pain,” Beier said. “These are often very long-term conditions as well.”
Aging workforce
Since December 2023, German patients can call their GP to request sick leave for up to five days.
“There is absolutely no basis to conclude that the high rate of illness is related to the ability to call a sick person by telephone,” Beier said. “After all, this is only possible for people who are registered patients at the practice they are calling and where their medical history is known. We are not seeing significant levels of abuse.”
Reinhardt said the introduction of sick notes that can be sent electronically to employers and health insurance companies has contributed to the perceived increase in sick days in Germany. Previously, not all patients submitted their certificates to health insurance companies, so not all sickness certificates were registered.
“What we are seeing is that the average age of the population and the workforce is increasing,” Reinhardt said. “And that leads to an increase in chronic illnesses and sick days.”
“The right thing”
Bäte, the insurance CEO, recently proposed eliminating sickness benefits from the first day symptoms appear. This could save 40 billion euros ($41 billion) a year, he said.
The proposal has attracted widespread criticism. The German Trade Union Confederation has warned of the associated costs and the risk of infection and accidents due to the increasing number of people reporting to work due to illness. The German metalworkers’ union has described the proposal to accuse employees of playing sick as scandalous and disastrous.
Beier said being forced to work sick or not being paid would mostly affect people who can’t afford to lose a day’s pay.
Claus Michelsen, chief economist at the German Association of Research Pharmaceutical Companies, said sick pay from the first day symptoms appeared was introduced to prevent people from coming to work sick. “The reason unpaid sick leave was eliminated in the 1970s was to prevent people from infecting their co-workers. It’s basically the right thing to do,” Michelsen explained.
Other countries are also looking for solutions as workplace infections become more widespread. This is why Michelsen recommends looking to Scandinavia: “In Sweden, for example, the partial sick leave model has been successfully implemented, which allows, among other things, working from home in the event of illness minor.”
Spain and Greece do not allow workers to receive sick pay on the first day they show symptoms. Countries like the United States, Canada, Japan and South Korea do not have universal sick pay. However, it is very unlikely that Germany, which was one of the first countries in the world to introduce universal sick pay in 1884, would attempt to tackle such a controversial topic. The law guarantees 100% of income for up to six weeks from the first day of illness.
“We should strengthen prevention as a building block of the health system,” Michelsen said. “Early detection measures or even simply taking classes for back pain can detect illnesses more quickly or lessen their consequences.”
This article was originally written in German.
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