Sick leave and sick pay

1. Six weeks at full pay

If you are unable to work through illness and it is not your own fault, your employer continues to pay your full salary for up to six weeks. This is Entgeltfortzahlung, and it applies once you have been employed for four weeks.

"Full pay" means what you would have earned, including regular allowances and overtime you would normally have worked. It is not reduced to a statutory rate, which distinguishes Germany from many other systems.

The six weeks run per illness, not per year. A different, unrelated illness starts a fresh six-week entitlement. Where the same illness recurs, entitlement renews only after defined periods have passed.

2. What you must do, and when

The obligations are procedural and taken seriously. Failing to report properly can justify a warning and, if repeated, a dismissal, even where you were genuinely ill.

Since the electronic sick note was introduced, the doctor sends the certificate to your health insurer and your employer retrieves it from there. This has changed the mechanics but not your duty to report: you still have to tell your employer yourself, on the first day, before your shift would start where possible.

1. 1

   Tell your employer on the first day

   Without delay, and before your working day starts if you can. Say that you are unable to work and how long you expect it to last. A phone call is normal; follow up in writing if your employer requires it.

2. 2

   See a doctor in time for the certificate

   A certificate is required from the fourth day of incapacity, but many contracts require one from the first day. Check yours, because this is a common trap.

3. 3

   Let the practice transmit the eAU

   The doctor sends it to your health insurer electronically. Ask for a printed copy for your own records: transmission failures happen and you may need the proof.

4. 4

   Report any extension separately

   If you are still unwell when the certificate expires, you need a follow-up certificate and you must tell your employer again. Silence is treated as an unexcused absence.

5. 5

   Contact your health insurer before week six ends

   The transition to Krankengeld is not automatic in practice. Gaps in certification can interrupt payment, and repairing that afterwards is difficult.

3. After six weeks: Krankengeld

When employer payment ends, statutory health insurance pays Krankengeld. It is a percentage of your normal earnings rather than the whole of it, subject to a cap, so it is a noticeable drop in income.

It can be paid for a long period for the same illness, counted across a three-year window, which makes it a genuine safety net for serious illness rather than a short bridge.

Privately insured employees are in a different position: whether and how much you receive depends on your policy and whether it includes daily sickness benefit. This is worth checking before you need it, not after.

• A percentage of normal pay, capped, so lower than your salary
• Paid by your statutory health insurer, not your employer
• Available for an extended period for the same illness within a three-year window
• Requires continuous certified incapacity, without gaps
• Privately insured employees depend on their own policy terms

4. Sick children, and sickness during holiday

If your child is ill and needs care, you are entitled to time off and, through statutory insurance, to Kinderkrankengeld for a number of days per child per year. You need a certificate from the child’s doctor, and the entitlement is per parent.

If you fall ill during your own annual leave and obtain a certificate, those days count as sickness rather than holiday, and the leave returns to your entitlement.

5. Can you be dismissed while sick?

Being on sick leave does not make you immune from dismissal. What protects you is ordinary dismissal protection, and that does not switch off during illness.

Dismissal because of illness is possible but tightly constrained: it generally requires long or frequently repeated absence, a poor prognosis, a substantial operational burden, and evidence that the employer considered alternatives. Employers are also expected to run a workplace reintegration procedure after long absence.

Abusing sick leave, on the other hand, is a serious matter. A certificate has strong evidential value, but where an employer can genuinely undermine it, dismissal without notice becomes possible.

• Sick leave does not by itself prevent a dismissal
• Illness-based dismissal requires substantial and evidenced grounds
• After long absence, the employer should offer a reintegration procedure (BEM)
• The three-week deadline to challenge a dismissal applies while you are ill
• A dismissal must still be in writing and signed to be valid