Krankmeldung: Wie sich Arbeitgeber gegen Blaumacher wehren können
Aus dem Handelsblatt-Archiv: Ein Mitarbeiter meldet sich immer an Brückentagen und montags krank? Diese rechtlichen Möglichkeiten haben Firmen bei Verdacht auf Blaumachen.
Berlin - The German workforce's sick leave situation has seen a slight decline recently, according to data from the Techniker Krankenkasse. However, the total number of employee absence days remains high. In January through November 2025, German employees collectively missed an average of 18.6 days of work. In all of 2021, German workers only took around 13 days off due to illness.
But it's unclear how many of these absences are genuine medical issues versus instances where employees "play sick" by pretending to be ill without actually being so. While nobody knows the exact figure, recent surveys suggest that more than a quarter of Germans have falsified their sick leave at least once. A new study by the Pronova BKK health insurance company found that 60 percent of employees have called in sick when they were actually fit for work, with seven percent doing this frequently.
About half of respondents admitted to occasionally or rarely playing sick. When an employee repeatedly calls in sick while being able to work, employers must not accept this behavior. Two labor law experts explain the legal options available to businesses when dealing with these "sick fakers."
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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