Germany has been declared the ‘world champions of sick leave’ by the country’s biggest insurer as it revealed that poorly Germans take an average of 20 days off each year.
The staggeringly high number of sick days are way above the European Union average of just eight days per year and provides a further dent in Germany’s growing reputation for a poor work ethic.
Germany’s high number of sick days were uncovered following research from the health insurer DAK.
They, in words reported by The Times, claimed the steep rise in sick days across the country since 2022 was partly due to a increases in colds and Covid cases.
It is employers who paid the price for the large amount of absences – which cost them an eye watering €77 billion in wages.
Including €19 billion from health insurers this comes to six per cent of the country’s national social spending.
Currently, Germans are entitled to six weeks of full pay if they can’t work for health reasons.
With Germany’s economy floundering and its worker now putting in significantly fewer working hours than their EU and British counterparts, businesses leaders have put forward their own solutions to tackle the high amount of sick days and jumpstart the economy.
Germany has been declared the ‘world champions of sick leave’ by the country’s biggest insurer as it is revealed that poorly Germans take an average of 20 days off each year (stock image)
A worker at the Volkswagen assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany. It is employers who paid the price for the large amount of absences – which cost them an eye watering €77 billion in wages
Oliver Bäte, the chief executive of Allianz SE, has proposed reintroducing a system abolished in 1970 where workers lost their pay on the first day sickness unless they have a doctor’s note.
A policy still in place in many countries such as Spain and Greece.
Speaking to German media he pointed out that Germany would save €40 billion if it could cut the amount of workers taking sick days.
Mr Bäte said: ‘In countries like Switzerland and Denmark people work a month longer per year on average — with comparable pay.’
His suggestion has been praised by fellow business leaders but prompted an outcry from trade unions and political parties.
Hans-Jürgen Urban, a board member of the engineering union IG Metall, said: ‘The German economy won’t recover with sick employees, but on the contrary with better working conditions.’
He also claimed making workers pay for the first day of sick leave was an ‘assault on the welfare state’.
The main Volkswagen factory of the German carmaker in Wolfsburg, Germany. For the first time in its history, the carmaker announced job cuts for the first time in its history in December
Dennis Radtke, a member of the European parliament for the centre-right CDU, called Mr Bäte’s suggestion ‘class war from above’.
Meanwhile, Europe’s largest economy has been floundering in recent months with titans of German industry such as Volkswagen announcing job cuts for the first time in their history last month.
It was the only G7 economy to shrink in 2023 and the IMF estimates that it will remain the group’s worst performing economy of 2024 with disastrous a zero per cent growth.
However fellow G7 members do not fair much better with neighbouring France seeing an estimate growth of just 1.1 per cent and the UK seeing a meager growth of just 1.5 per cent.