German chancellor Friedrich Merz announced sweeping tax, pension and labour reforms today, including that workers will now be required to get a medical certificate saying they’re too unwell to work from the first day of sick leave.
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.
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!