Germany is facing difficulties such as a slowdown in manufacturing and weak export demand. Economists have criticized Germany as the "Sick man of Europe." This not only represents weak output, but also reflects the current situation of German employees. Many companies lament that employees taking too many sick days affect productivity and are criticized. Forced to hire private investigators to reveal whether employees taking sick leave are real or fake.
The Association of German Research Pharmaceutical Companies calculates that rising sickness absence will reduce Germany's output by 0.8% in 2023, causing the economy to shrink by 0.3%. Germany's federal statistics agency Destatis noted that German workers took an average of 15.1 days of sick leave last year, up from 11.1 days in 2021. TK, one of Germany's main statutory health insurance companies, reported that the average number of sick days taken by insured workers in the first nine months of this year was 14.13 days, a record high.
According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Germans' average absence from work due to illness was 6.8% in 2023, which is more serious than other EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain. Many companies cannot bear to speak out. Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius lamented: "Germany's absenteeism rate is sometimes twice that of other European countries."
German workers frequently call in sick, in part because of a system first introduced during the coronavirus pandemic that allows patients with mild symptoms, or those who pretend to be sick, to get a diagnosis from a doctor over the phone, effectively providing relief for employees who don't want to go to work. Opening the door, some businesses are calling for the system to be scrapped.
Companies start investigating
Companies from car giants to fertilizer makers say high sick leave rates are already affecting German productivity. Some companies take the initiative to investigate on their own. For example, Tesla managers personally go to employees' homes to check on employees who have taken sick leave.
More companies are directly inviting detectives to investigate. The boss of a German detective company said that more and more companies no longer want to tolerate it. If someone takes sick leave for 30 to 40 days a year, sometimes even up to 100 days, this kind of employee has a negative impact on the company. In other words, there is no economic output and it is no longer attractive. He said many companies ask them to investigate employees suspected of taking sick leave, and now receive up to 1,200 such requests a year, about double the number a few years ago.
During the investigation, he found that some employees pretended to be sick for a long time but were actually working part-time. He gave the example of one person who helped his wife with her business while on sick leave, and some who took long-term sick leave to renovate their house. While hiring detectives can be costly, companies can use this evidence to fire extremely unproductive employees as the economy becomes more difficult.
Spain investigates employees reaping the consequences
But doing so may be illegal. There are also companies in Spain that hire private detectives to investigate employees who take long-term sick leave. One of the cases was an employee with "unknown adaptive disorder". The company asked him to take 60 days of unpaid leave, but the detective discovered that the person had taken leave. During this period, he went to play golf and was able to leave the location and go to another residential property in Spain. As a result, the company used this report to punish the employee, but the content of the punishment was unclear.
The employees then took the case to the district court, but the company lost the case. The judge said that the evidence provided by the private investigators violated Article 48 of the Private Security Law, which states that "under no circumstances shall the investigation be carried out at home or in other private places, such as the above-mentioned golf club." happenings in one's private life." He was also ordered to pay workers' compensation of €15,000.
In the end, the High Court also rejected the appeal. The court stated that the evidence was illegal and that the company's plaintiff's temporary incapacity violated the employees' privacy rights. It also emphasized that the employees suffered from unspecified adaptive disorders at the time, such as depression, stress and other pathological problems, which were not related to golf. There is no contradiction in the behavior of waiting for physical activities and returning to a second home. This case illustrates that companies should crack down on employees who frequently ask for leave. Improper operations may also lead to consequences.
