Germany toughens its labor reforms by requiring a sick leave certificate from day one: “It is a competitive disadvantage”
In Germany, take a sick leave After the pandemic it was as easy as picking up the phone, describing what hurts you and hanging up with the leave already processed. That procedure his days are numbered. Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants Germans to go to a doctor’s office again from the first day they feel unwell, and for him to be the one to prescribe sick leave with proof from the first day. The measure has opened a debate that, although it may not seem like it, we also have in Spain. What exactly changes in Germany. Since Germany implemented distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, a worker could call his or her doctor, tell him or her the symptoms, and receive treatment. lower part without leaving home. Merz’s plan erases them with a stroke of the pen. From now on, proof must be requested in person from the first day of sick leave. Previously, it was only necessary after the third day of illness. As and how I collected the BBCChancellor Merz argued that “we cannot afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long periods of absence from work.” The reform, agreed between his party and the SPD, has clashed with unions, who speak of a “culture of mistrust” towards employees, and with family doctors, who fear seeing their offices overflowing with workers with a simple cold. Spain, an uncomfortable mirror. The German debate sounds distant until you look at the data here. Work absenteeism in Spain reached 7.2% of the agreed hours in the first quarter of 2026, its highest level in five years, according to the Randstad report Research. That is equivalent to more than 1.6 million of people who are absent from their jobs every day. In Germany the data follow a similar pattern and, according to the IGES report For the DAK-Gesundheit mutual insurance company, the average sick leave time is 19.5 days per year per worker, with mental health as the fastest growing cause. Justified and unjustified, two very different things. However, the term absenteeism is misleading and lumps together those who do not go to work due to a diagnosed illness and those who do not report to work by their own decision. He justified absenteeism It includes medical leave, legal permits or a justified appointment with the specialist, and the company cannot sanction you in any case. Unjustified absenteeism is a very different thing and includes absences without warning or giving any explanation, something that can end in a sanction and even dismissal. In Spain, almost eight out of every ten absences come from a temporary disability recognized by a doctor. It should be noted that temporary sick leave is not assigned by the worker himself, but is prescribed by a doctor. Only two out of ten workers miss work without justifying it. The real bottleneck: saturated healthcare. Many sick leave are not prolonged because the patient decides to extend their convalescence. They lengthen because the medical system takes time to treat you. According to data from the Ministry of Health, in 2025 there were more than 853,000 people in waiting list surgery in Spain, with an average delay of 121 days to undergo surgery. Added to this are more than four million people waiting for an appointment with a specialist. The result is easy to imagine: someone on sick leave due to a hernia or a knee can spend months on sick leave waiting for the test or operation that would return them to work sooner. While Germany tightens downward access, in Spain the bottleneck of absenteeism is a few steps further: in a waiting room. In Xataka | Germany has recovered a measure from 1889 to avoid the collapse of its pensions: work until age 70 Image | Unsplash (Maheshkumar Painam, Vitaly Gariev)
