WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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SOURCE: DW- AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS
New statistics on sick leave in Germany have stirred up the spirits: according to data from the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, Germans spent an average of 15.1 working days on sick leave in 2023. In previous years, Germany was also at the top of the international comparison in terms of days spent by employees on sick leave.
Germans are not lazy
This immediately prompted some voices from the economy to come out with proposals that, in their opinion, would force Germans to pull themselves together again and not go on sick leave after the first sniffle. The CEO of the insurance company Allianz, Oliver Bäte, proposed the introduction of some kind of salary break for the first day of sick leave. "The Germans are convincingly in first place in the EU on average. "Germany is the world champion when it comes to sick leave," Bäte told the Handelsblatt newspaper earlier this week.
He therefore proposed that employers should waive the first day's pay for sick leave for workers. This would reduce costs for the economy and health insurance funds. "Employers in Germany pay 77 billion euros a year for sick leave, and health insurance funds pay another 19 billion. That's around six percent of total social spending. The average in the European Union is 3.5 percent," Bäte explained. He pointed out that in some EU countries, such as Sweden, Spain and Greece, employees on their first day of sick leave must expect to be unpaid.
Before him, a member of the so-called Economic Wise Men, Monika Schnitzer, had also advocated the abolition of sick leave.
SPD against unions for
It didn't take long for the unions and the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which controls the relevant Ministry of Labor, to react. "Whoever suspects sick employees of slacking off has a completely wrong picture of employees in this country," said Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), reacting to the debate on the abolition of the payment of the first day of sick leave. He added that with the SPD in power, there will be no abolition of sick pay.
The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) called the proposal to abolish sick pay from the first day "shameless".
But the politicians of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU), who, according to public opinion polls, could emerge as the strongest force in the elections at the end of February, are very open to the introduction of a break in sick pay. "The German social system is quite burdened, so we have to be open to new ideas," said Sepp Müller, vice-president of the Union caucus, to the Politico portal.
Increasingly older employees
Markus Beier, the federal president of the German Association of General Practitioners, disagrees with the assessment that German workers are slackers. "No, we are not a nation of sick people. These days, in my practice, I see exactly what the health insurance companies' estimates have shown in recent months: more and more people with acute infections are coming to the practice. This is partly a "lag effect" of the pandemic, he told DW. He also pointed out that the increase in statistical measurements should also be linked to the new sick leave reporting system. "The introduction of electronic sick leave reporting to employers and health insurance companies is another reason for the high level of sick leave in Germany. Since not all patients previously sent their certificates to the health insurance companies, their sick leave was not recorded. From January 1, 2023, all sick leave will be recorded," Beier concludes, pointing to another aspect of the increase in the number of days spent on sick leave. "What is evident is that the average age of the population and employees is increasing. This means that the number of chronic diseases and sick leave is also increasing."
