74
The title is wrong. Yes, the government announced plans for this, but that doesn't mean that it is already the law.
Most of the mainstream media is beating around the bush with titles like „Merz announces reform package”. Given that most people read titles only I specifically chose this news outlet for this piece because they’re calling things for what they are.
Honest question - how likely it is for Merz to backtrack due to negative feedback? It’s likely that his voter base is for it, people have been subjected to neoliberal propaganda for so long that they think that failures of this system can only be fixed by more of it.
But is it really beating around the bush or simply reporting it for what it is? No laws have been written yet and Bundestag and Bundesrat have to agree to them. Yes, it is likely that most of the announced changes will become reality, but for now nothing changed.
In general I strive to use news sources that put as much plain information in the title as possible, on the account of people reading titles only. Mainstream media didn’t provide any that would satisfy me so I went with Novara and this slightly alarmist tone (which can be also taken as a manner of speech) because alarmism is well founded in this case.
Psychopath does what he can to make life more difficult for others.
He says that it's a competitive disadvantage as if other countries already have policies like this.
And the German citizens who are so dishonest are the ones who voted him into power, so what does that say about him?
3rd largest economy in the World.
Merz: this is not working - Germans are too lazy - we need to change something.
As an outsider: Lazy German always struck me as an oxymoron.
It was like that in Poland prior to the pandemic but now we can take up to 3 days of leave from a doctor over the phone. Doctor’s note could always be backdated up to 1-2 days. I don’t think we’ll follow Germany in this even though we have even more neoliberal government because private healthcare lobby is so strong and private healthcare providers are the most accessible ones that offer doctor consultation over the phone. We still receive only 80% of salary while sick so people are incentivised to go to work when they shouldn’t. Extremely short sighted policies all around.
I'm pretty sure we (Germans) will roll this back. Probably not under fucking Merz 😐
Because they realized that forcing people with a highly infectious disease to go and speak to the doctor in person was not the best idea!
oh, I guess Germany has a lot of unemployed doctors, so they're making up unnecessary busywork to help them?
Saw this on the news and it mentioned the german guy comparing thier sick days to the us and how germans use twice as many. dude. us workers are going to work sick.
I thought Europe had good worker protection laws.
In the US, I just tell my manager I’m not feeling well, and take a sick day. No doctors notes.
Is this not how it works in Europe? Granted I am a salaried employee. I also work from home. So not hourly labor. Do these things factor in as well?
It can vary wildly country to country. Some have a small quota of sick days that don’t require doctor’s note, some require it for every day. Most started allowing getting doctors note remotely during the pandemic. Governments here generally take more interest in it because social security is usually expected to pay at least some part of your salary during sick leave. There’s also a separate concept of „leave on demand” / force majeure leave that can be treated similar to those sick days without doctor’s note (EU started to require it recently).
That's going to be a nice boost for the next pandemic.
I'm not sure I'm following.
In Italy, if I get sick, I call my doctor that depending on how sick I am, will either send me an email certificate (that it's already logged in the national social security system at the moment they make it) or give me an appointment if I need to be checked. Normally, within the day, I send my employer that email and it's all done.
Was Germany doing differently?
Essentially in the first few days you called just in to work and told them you are sick. No doctor ‘proof’ required. They had to trust you that you are. From the third day onwards you needed proof. So you had to go to the doctor and get it. Then they added during corona that you can call the doctor to get proof for smaller stuff like a common cold. Now they want to remove that all and sent anyone for anything to the doctor.
Plus the doctors / GP already have enough crap to do and are super full we constantly hear in the news that we need more doctors who work the villages blah blah blah. So now the few who do will haven even more work. Also also they claim the old system had been abused by the worker to skip work. Instead of realising that due to corona a lot of people actually still stay home when they are sick and don’t drag that shit to work.
In the US I just call or email my boss.
No one wants a sick person to come in and spread it around.
I've never once needed a note from a doc, even when I've been out for an extended period for a surgery.
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
74 points (100.0% liked)
European
74 readers
19 users here now
News and articles about Europe.
This is a curated community but everyone is welcome to post. Please read the stickied rules before engaging. Meant to be serious but there's not that many rules against having fun.
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS