Overview
- SPD leader and Labour Minister Bärbel Bas publicly asked the Union for new talks and said she will not present implementation proposals for the Attest-from-day-one rule until Health Minister Carsten Linnemann provides the complementary measures.
- The coalition had agreed in late August to end telephone sick notes and require a medical certificate from the first day, but Bas’s intervention creates real uncertainty about whether and when that change will be enacted.
- Leading medical representatives and major insurers warn that removing telephone sick notes will push symptomatic patients into doctor’s offices, raise infection risk in waiting rooms and overload primary-care practices.
- A new study from the Institute of the German Economy (IW) found employers paid a record €85.6 billion for continued sick pay in 2025, but IW economists say the legal change may have little practical effect because employers can already demand certificates from day one and many will avoid the extra administration.
- Implementation is tied to a broader health package that includes an appointment guarantee and stroke prevention, while proposed exemptions for tariff-bound firms and Bas’s demand for more detail mean the rule’s final form, scope and timeline remain unsettled.