Union and SPD want to abolish phone-based sick notes and require a doctor's certificate from the first day of absence. Doctors' representatives and economists criticize the plans as symbolic politics.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz justified the plans with excessively high numbers of sick days. In future, employees are to present a sick note from the first day of illness, while the phone-based sick note option introduced at the end of 2023 is to be abolished. Both measures are still to be fleshed out in the legislative process.
Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth of the Hausärztinnen- und Hausärzteverband called the changes pure symbolic politics. She instead called for action against providers of video consultations that aggressively advertise quick sick notes.
Economist Daniel Graeber from the DIW warned that a certificate requirement from day one could increase infection risks. A YouGov survey found that 59 percent of respondents oppose the earlier certificate requirement.
