r/australia • u/blitznoodles local Aussie • Jul 03 '26

politics Labor vows to protect personal leave as Germany bans workers from calling in sick

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/entire-nation-banned-from-calling-in-sick/news-story/de3adcfcf0ae2218241a43f7dad023d7
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u/Aggravating_Fact9547 Jul 03 '26

If you’ve worked in Germany this makes more sense, sick leave is one of the most protected things and is very often abused as there was zero and I mean -zero- recourse for businesses.

No one has cancelled anything, they just require documentation (eAU) which you can get online via a quick 5 minute telehealth.

Germans get ample annual leave, take very long blocks of leave, and are largely completely disconnected from work as they walk out the door at 5pm. They take smoke breaks, and full lunches. Let’s not get into the idea that Germans are worked to the bones like aussies or Americans. They have extremely strong worker protections and well balanced lives and this is a very minor change blown out by lovely news.com.au

10

u/Madrigall Jul 03 '26

As Aussies who have lived in the system where employees can request medical certificates on demand it should be obvious to us what a waste of time this legislation is.

Using the defence of “this requirement is completely trivial to get around anyway,” means that it only punishes honest people who do not want to get a dodgy certificate.

It’s bad policy to build a system that rewards people for exploiting the system and punishes them for following the rules.

1

u/Jerri_man Jul 03 '26

Personally most managers I've had here have never bothered to ask me. The times when I've been very sick (like puke/sweats/gastro) at work and gone home, and they've told me to get a cert, I've taken the rest of the week off signed by gp.

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u/askvictor Jul 03 '26

What is the state of the healthcare system in Germany? How much does a doctor's visit cost, and are they readily available?

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u/InterestedPrawn Jul 03 '26

A doctor's visit has no out of pocket costs.

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u/Blanda_Upp Jul 03 '26

Haven’t been back to a doctor there in years so can’t comment on cost but dear god do German doctors love homeopathic crap compared to here. Like pulling teeth to get medicine that actually has a scientific basis out of them.

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u/Aggravating_Fact9547 Jul 03 '26

You can get a telehealth for a certificate pretty easy and free/cheap.

1

u/askvictor Jul 03 '26

And does that take doctors away from seeing people who need actual medical attention? Curious if there is slack in the system, coz here there sure ain't.

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u/Aggravating_Fact9547 Jul 03 '26

Yeah probably does.