Overview
- This week the coalition agreed to require a physician-issued Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung (AU) from the first day of illness and to abolish telephone-issued AUs, a change the government frames as cutting high sick-day totals.
- Doctors’ associations and unions immediately warned the rule will increase visits to already busy GP practices and create a culture of mistrust toward workers.
- Analyses from the Zentralinstitut and Barmer find telephone AUs made up only about 0.8–1.2% of AUs from 2020–2023, and other research says the 2022 electronic AU rollout inflates international comparisons of Germany’s sick days.
- Health Minister Nina Warken has promoted video consultations as a digital substitute and the DAK chief Andreas Storm has urged expanding graded or partial sick leave (Teilkrankschreibung) as a more targeted way to keep people working.
- Legal and administrative steps are already moving forward: jobcenters will apply rules under §56 SGB II from July 2026, and employment lawyers note that worker-favorable contract clauses can remain valid under the Günstigkeitsprinzip, so workplace practices may vary after the law changes.