Germans are declared ‘world champions in sick leave’ by country’s leading insurer as it reveals poorly workers take average of 20 days off each year
Germany has been named ‘world sick leave champion’ by the country’s largest insurer, after it showed that bad Germans take an average of twenty days off per year.
The staggeringly high number of sick days is far above the European Union average of just eight days a year, and puts a further dent in Germany’s growing reputation for poor work ethics.
The high number of sick days in Germany came to light after research by health insurer DAK.
They, in words reported by The timesclaimed that the sharp increase in sick days across the country since 2022 was partly due to a rise in colds and Covid cases.
It is the employers who paid the price for the large number of absences, which cost them no less than 77 billion euros in wages.
Including €19 billion from health insurers, this amounts to six percent of the country’s national social expenditure.
Currently, Germans are entitled to six weeks of full wages if they are unable to work for health reasons.
With Germany’s economy reeling and workers working significantly fewer hours than their counterparts in the EU and Britain, business leaders have put forward their own solutions to tackle the high number of sick days and get the economy back on track. to get started.
Germany has been named ‘world sick leave champion’ by the country’s largest insurer after it was revealed that bad Germans take an average of 20 days off every year (stock image)
A worker on the Volkswagen assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany. It is the employers who paid the price for the high number of absences – which cost them no less than 77 billion euros in wages
Oliver Bäte, the CEO of Allianz SE, has proposed reintroducing a system abolished in 1970 where workers lost their pay on the first day of illness unless they had a doctor’s note.
A policy that is still in force in many countries, such as Spain and Greece.
Speaking to German media, he pointed out that Germany would save 40 billion euros if it could reduce the number of workers taking sick days.
Mr Bäte said: ‘In countries such as Switzerland and Denmark, people work an average of one month longer per year – with comparable wages.’
His suggestion was praised by fellow business leaders, but sparked outrage among unions and political parties.
Hans-Jürgen Urban, board member of the engineering union IG Metall, said: “The German economy will not recover with sick workers, but rather with better working conditions.”
He also claimed that paying workers for the first day of sick leave was an “attack on the welfare state.”
The German automaker’s main Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. The automaker announced job cuts in December for the first time in its history
Dennis Radtke, member of the European Parliament for the centre-right CDU, called Mr Bäte’s suggestion “class war from above”.
Meanwhile, Europe’s largest economy has floundered in recent months, with German industry titans such as Volkswagen announcing job cuts last month for the first time in their history.
It was the only G7 economy to shrink in 2023 and the IMF estimates it will remain the worst-performing of the group in 2024, with disastrous zero percent growth.
However, fellow G7 members are not doing much better: neighboring France has an estimated growth of only 1.1 percent and Great Britain a meager growth of only 1.5 percent.