German chancellor Friedrich Merz announced sweeping tax, pension and labour reforms today, including that workers will now be required to get a medical certificate saying they’re too unwell to work from the first day of sick leave.
Workers in Germany used to be able to take up to three sick days without seeing a doctor and could call a doctor for a one-week sick leave letter without an in-person appointment.
Under the new reforms, both options are now banned.
In a speech, Merz flagged “exorbitant levels of sick leave in companies following the pandemic” and said: “We are…
Maybe, but doesn’t this seem super high to you?
3.6 weeks?
We have 5 paid sick days here and 3 unpaid. I think I used 1 or 2 last year.
Yeah Germany is in a good place and Germans are willingly sabotaging themselves because Germany is easy to manipulate when you tell Germans they are superior. That is my point.
Have you looked at any populist movement in the world? Anyone likes easy solutions and being told their often multiple fears/worries/problems have one definite source. That is the populist playbook and has happened again and again over hundreds of years, irrespective of actual systems of Government. I think that is something very human that can only be beaten with education, imo.
The question is education of what kind? Education only about machines and their practical applications of their force? Or education about the humanities and art and why they are more important than the machines?
Something The Magic Mountain captures in perfect tension.
The average is always high, because long time sickness drags the statistics up.
It’s not 10 people having the flu for 3.6 weeks every year. It’s one person going down with stress or cancer for half a year without losing their employment.
Yeah just seems high with Italy being at .9. Germany has 4x higher sickness? Or just Italians lose their jobs? And Romania with .1 week.
https://www.datapulse.de/en/sick-leave-europe-comparison/
This goes into everything about it. In short, the sick statistics actually only shows which countries are good at reporting it. The countries with the best coverage of pay obviously also report it better.
Germany is straight in the middle of everything.
The most interesting thing to notice is Norway. They have the highest average of sick days. They’re probably not more sick than others, but because their sick days are covered 100% by the state, it’s in everyone’s interest to report it. And yet… despite of 19% of the workforce being sick on any given day… they’re also the most productive GDP/hour.
Hmm good point
Seems a bit high but on par with rest of Europe
Italy .9 week. Germany is 4x higher
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