[파이낸셜뉴스]
A man is dragging a bag near the Volkswagen Power Plant in Wolfsburg, a car company representing German manufacturing, on the 30th of last month (local time). Germany ranks first in sick leave days in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), raising concerns that it is truly becoming Europe’s sick country. Reuters Union
There are warnings that Germany is truly becoming the sick man of Europe.
It is not just a metaphor for the poor economic situation due to steep inflation (rising prices) while the German economy has barely avoided a recession.
German business circles have warned that the rapid increase in sick leave among employees is reducing competitiveness and that the German economy is in decline.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 1st (local time) that the number of working days lost due to sick leave last year was 19.4 days per worker on average, citing data from Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Germany’s largest health insurance company.
TK predicted that this is a preliminary figure and will be revised in the future, but as this trend continues, the number of sick leave days will continue to increase.
Sick leave has emerged as a serious burden on the German economy, which is expected to show negative growth for two consecutive years from last year to this year.
Christopher Prinz, an employment expert at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said Germany was in the top group when it came to sick leave.
According to the OECD, Germany ranked first in the OECD with an average number of sick leave days per worker of 22.4 days as of 2022, the latest comparable statistics.
As manufacturing, the engine of Germany’s economic growth, has halted decades of growth due to soaring energy prices, labor shortages, and rigid bureaucracy following the Ukraine War, the surge in sick leave is expected to spark debate about Germany’s future economic model.
An executive at a large manufacturing company criticized that there is a movement among some ‘work-shy’ young workers to never understand the sacrifices necessary to prosper and maintain competitiveness.
He criticized that in this situation, it is natural for Germany to become the sick man of Europe.
Paul Niederstein, co-owner and CEO of Cotting, a plating company, said the surge in sick leave is just a phenomenon, noting that there are more workers these days who are “overly spoiled and overly confident.”
A report released in January by the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA) estimated that if the number of sick leave days in Germany had not been so high, the German economy would have grown by a positive (+) 0.5% last year instead of a negative 0.3%.
Klaus Mikkelsen, the author of the paper, said that the shortage of skilled workers is becoming more serious as the number of sick days increases.
CEO Elon Musk’s Tesla also came up with an alternative for executives to prevent fake sick days. Tesla, which has a factory near Berlin, decided to visit the homes of employees who were on sick leave without warning to check whether they were truly sick and resting.
Most German companies are negative about introducing such extreme methods, but agree that something is needed.
Many point out that the reason for the rapid increase in sick leave is the unusual regulations at the time of COVID-19.
At the time, in order to prevent the spread of this respiratory disease infection, it was recommended that employees take sick leave to their companies if they had a medical condition. As the perception of sick leave changed, the use of sick leave when people did not want to go to work became more frequent.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner also pointed out that there was a connection between the introduction of this system in September and the rapid increase in sick leave, and that supplementary measures were needed.
dympna@fnnews.com Reporter Song Kyung-jae
※ Copyright ⓒ Financial News, unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited
