German row over plan for workers to need sick note on first day of illness

German row over plan for workers to need sick note on first day of illnessImage source, ReutersImage caption, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the number of sick days in Germany was "too high"ByBethany BellGermany reporterPublishedJust nowA row has broken out in Germany after the coalition government announced changes to sick-leave rules, requiring Germans to provide a doctor's note to their employers on the first day of their illness.The changes also mean workers will not be able to obtain the note by phone, scrapping a measure brought in due to the Covid-19 pandemic."The number of sick days in Germany is too high," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.Under the current rules, a certificate is only required if a person is unfit for work for more than three days – in other words, on the fourth day, although employers are entitled to request the sick note earlier.The plans were agreed by Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and his coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD)."This is a tough decision," the chancellor said. "But we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long periods of absence from work."Merz said the government would not accept what he called "exorbitant" levels of sick leave in the wake of the pandemic.Germany was "returning to the arrangements we had before the coronavirus pandemic," he told ARD TV on Thursday night. "At the same time, it is up to individual businesses to agree on other arrangements as well."Medical groups have strongly criticised the plans.The KBV, a national association representing statutory health insurance physicians, said that it "bordered on madness" to force thousands of people to visit doctors' surgeries simply to fill in forms."Anyone who is coughing or has a gastrointestinal infection belongs in bed – not in an overcrowded surgery," it said in a statement.The Association of General Pract...