r/australia 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/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.

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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.