Labour minister questions Germany's first-day sick note plan

Federal Labour Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) has expressed doubt over whether the CDU’s plan to make sick notes mandatory from the first day of sick leave “makes sense”.

Bas questions CDU sick note plan

In an interview with Funke Mediengruppe, Bas said she was “loyal” to the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition, but that “we should ask again whether [making sick notes mandatory from the first day of leave] makes sense”. 

In early July, the CDU-led government approved a reform package which proposed changing the rules around sick leave. Currently, employees must provide their employer with a doctor’s note if they are sick for more than three calendar days. 

According to the reform, employees would be required to visit a doctor and submit a note from the first day of absence. “My concern is that people who only have a mild infection will go to the doctor on the first day they are sick, and what was meant to be a short absence will end up turning into a whole week’s sick leave,” Bas told the news outlet.

Bas added that the number of exceptions to the new rule might render the entire policy redundant. “For example, there is to be an exemption for companies bound by collective agreements that have different rules. If I introduce a requirement and then include 95 exemptions, it raises the question of whether there is any point in having it at all.”

Back in July, head of the Association of General Practitioners, Markus Blumenthal-Beier, warned the new rules could be “absolutely catastrophic” for doctors. Blumenthal-Beier said practices would face a “huge wave of bureaucratic red tape that will be almost impossible to cope with”, that the reform was “completely devoid of any factual basis” and would likely result in more people turning up sick to work.

Gov’t will move forward with sick note reform

Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius responded to Bas’ comments on Monday. Kornelius explained that the government had already agreed on the new policy, that “this agreement stands and forms the basis for further work within the federal government”.

While the government agreed on the policy and voted to pass the reform package back in July, the new rules are yet to become law. This means that for now, employees in Germany can still self-certify for the first three days of their sick leave. However, individual employers may still require employees to submit a sick note from day one.

The government plans to implement the new rules by the end of the year. But speaking to Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, head of the CDU workers’ wing Dennis Radkte said the details may be ironed out more during the legislative process.

Radkte also criticised Bas’ decision to publicly express doubt over the policy. “Constant discord helps neither the state nor the coalition to move forward,” he told the newspaper in Cologne.