New Delhi: Workers in Germany can no longer take sick leave without a doctor’s note. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government on 2 July announced a package of 34 reforms aimed at revitalising growth and bolstering competitiveness within Europe’s largest economy.
Along with tax relief and changes to the pension system, Merz also declared that workers must “submit a medical certificate from the very first day of illness.”
“We know this is a tough decision. But we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by prolonged absences from work,” Merz told reporters, according to The Independent.
Other measures include €10 billion in annual tax relief for lower-income earners, building more affordable housing and an action plan against benefit fraud. The government also plans to cut staffing by 8 per cent in federal ministries.
“We want to get Germany back on track,” he added.
The measure restricting sick leave more than others has received widespread criticism.
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Social media weighs in
As the internet erupts in an uproar over the latest reforms, one X user wonders if this is perhaps because employees often misuse sick leave.
“People are misusing sick leaves so much in Germany that the government has now made it mandatory for everyone to show medical proof of the illness from the first day of the sick leave itself,” the post read.
Others, however, are focusing on the politics behind the decision.
Journalist and editor of the Geopolitical Economy Report, Ben Norton, in an X post, said that the real reason Merz is restricting sick leaves is high energy prices, adding that “Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz, a multimillionaire who led the German arm of Wall Street giant BlackRock, is governing exactly as expected.”
“Germany’s pro-war “Greens” successfully got the government to shut down its nuclear power plants (the greenest form of energy), and then they insanely opened coal plants (the dirtiest form of energy). (France gets c. 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear, and has significantly lower CO2 emissions per capita than Germany, and much cheaper electricity.) Then Germany boycotted cheap Russian energy, and its NATO “allies” blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. Now Germany is importing expensive LNG from the US, and its manufacturing firms are shutting down factories because high energy costs have made local manufacturing too expensive and uncompetitive. Instead of solving that problem, Merz is blaming workers for taking sick leave,” Norton posted.
One user, a doctor based in Germany, called the reform “lunacy” claiming that it would have “consequences for all sides.”
“A) This will force patients to go to work when they should be staying home and resting, ultimately endangering themselves and others and prolonging recovery times – because it’s actually insane to demand from people with fever or diarrhoea to actually physically go and see a doctor on the first day of their symptoms. B) This is going to be an absolute nightmare for doctors and emergency departments. There’s absolutely no capacity whatsoever in the German healthcare system for this utterly absurd legislation,” the post added.
In India, although there is no requirement for a doctor’s note, whenever employers have in the past requested such a note, it has resulted in controversy.
Recently, a Gen Z employee’s response when asked to submit a doctor’s prescription for sick leave went viral online.
An X user shared the exchange, with the caption: “Indian managers think slaves work under them, not employees. Brutal response by Gen Z employee.”
The texts showed the employee informing their manager of a leave when they were informed that the director had imposed a new rule saying a doctor’s note was necessary. The employee responded, saying that they were not a school student.
“I’m not a school student, Sir. Leaves are available; I took leave. He (the director) is a doctor himself, so tell him to write a prescription in my name. Besides, I don’t have a prescription or a leave application signed by my parents with me right now, and I am resting, so I won’t be replying to any messages or calls,” the employee wrote back.
The exchange quickly divided the internet, with some users saying that the leaves exist to be taken at the employee’s discretion.