Germany Faces Rising Sick Leave Crisis: 19.4 Days Lost Average in 2023 Post-COVID

Workers in Germany lost an average of 19.4 days at work due to illness in 2023, according to data from the largest health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse. The length of absence has increased significantly in recent years following the covid pandemic. In 2022 it was an average of 19 days, in 2021 not even 15 days, and in 2006 even a little more than 11 days. Absenteeism for women was slightly higher on average than for men.

In addition to the increased frequency of respiratory diseases after the covid pandemic, the diagnosis of mental illnesses has increased in recent years.

Unlike the Czech Republic, in Germany, workers take 100 percent of their net salary for the first six weeks of sick leave, so they don’t lose any money. This generous approach is criticized by many employers. Likewise, they want a reconsideration of how the doctor presented incapacitated patients on the phone without seeing the patient. This step was introduced during covid.

Even German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in September that he sees a link between the introduction of this procedure and more morbidity – and he would like to eliminate it.

Although according to the FT “very difficult” to compare data between countries, Chrisdean Prinz, an employment expert who works for the OECD, told the paper that Germany is definitely among the countries with the longest sick leave.

For example, the head of the Mercedes-Benz car company, Ola Källenius, recently reported that absenteeism due to illness is sometimes up to twice as high for workers in the German industry as in other countries with similar situations.

He said that as an employer, in addition to improving work safety and ergonomics, he tries to provide medical consultations, vaccinations or exercises. “But both sides are needed for development,” he said.

According to the FT, the unnamed head of another large German industrial company criticized the “total willingness” especially among younger workers to sacrifice what is needed to maintain prosperity and competitiveness.

“And then everyone wonders why Germany is sick in Europe,” he said.

Paul Niederstein, co-owner and director of steel galvanizing company Coatinc, which has 600 employees in Germany, described high absenteeism as a sign of workers who are “too destructive and self-confident”.

This problem has now fueled a debate about the future economic model of Europe’s largest economy, where high energy prices, job shortages and stifling bureaucracy have halted growth in business and the entire economy after several decades, the FT said.

According to the study of the Association of German Pharmaceutical Research Companies, the above-average number of absences due to illness contributed to last year’s decline in the country’s economy by 0.3 percent, otherwise it would have grown by 0.5 percent.

For example, Tesla CEO Elon Musk ordered company inspections of sick workers at home due to high absenteeism at the Tesla plant near Berlin.

Some managers want the first three days of sick leave not to be paid at all, because he was working in the Czech Republic before the so-called cancellation. grace period in mid-2019.

In the Czech Republic, according to the latest data from the CZSO, sick leave lasted an average of 32.5 days in the first half of the year, but these are figures processed according to a different methodology, which is not counting only sick leave, including long time. term illnesses or injuries. From analysis and graphs World Health Organization it follows that in 2022 the average absence due to illness will be 19 days in the Czech Republic, and even 25 days in Germany.