Overview
- German labour courts reaffirm that an Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung (AU) normally carries high probative value but can be set aside when an employer produces concrete, provable facts that create serious doubts about the sickness claim.
- Courts have upheld summary dismissals where employees used AUs issued without any real doctor contact or where they announced an intent to feign illness, because those facts can show a breach of trust that makes continuation of the employment relationship unreasonable.
- Digital AUs remain lawful only when based on an actual medical contact such as a video visit or, under narrow G‑BA rules, a phone call with an existing patient; pure form‑based online certificates without any doctor conversation are legally risky and have led to validated dismissals.
- Social‑security panels and the Deutsche Rentenversicherung clarify that employer top‑ups to sick pay are usually treated as additional earnings for pension checks but may be excluded when a contract treats them as a pension advance and the employer actually reclaims the amount.
- Practical takeaway for workers and employers: employees must document symptom timing and how limits affected specific job tasks and should secure focused physician statements, while employers must plead and prove precise facts before suspending pay or pursuing fristlose Kündigung.