Workers in Germany Will Now Need a Sick Note from Day One
Friedrich Merz wants workers to provide a doctor's note from the first day of sickness, and he's scrapped calling up your Hausarzt by phone.
"We know this is a tough decision," announced German chancellor Friedrich Merz, unveiling the controversial change in the law, "but we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long absences from work."
On Thursday, Germany's ruling coalition of CDU and SPD announced their new reform package — 34 measures, officially titled "A Programme for Recovery and Employment" ("Ein Programm für Aufschwung und Beschäftigung"). Critics have already called it a neoliberal deregulation programme – which seems accurate given that it doubles the maximum length employers can keep workers on fixed-term contracts without justification from two to four years, attempts a possibly unconstitutional ban on state-level housing expropriation, dismantles freedom of information rights, and includes a tax giveaway costing €10 billion a year.
Merz wants your boss to be able to discipline you for not coming in to work sick.
There's plenty to talk about in all that, but the most headline-grabbing announcement among this hit list was perhaps the news that Germany will now demand its employees provide a sick note from their very first day of illness, and forbid anyone from obtaining one over the phone.