A sick note required from the very first day, the end of phone-based sick certificates, and the option to keep jobs fixed-term for up to four years without a justified reason: for employees, these coalition decisions mark a clear step backwards. Unions sharply criticized the planned changes, while employer representatives welcomed them. According to the coalition, the goal is also to keep unemployment insurance contributions stable. It also agreed on improvements for employees.
The CDU/CSU and SPD agreed in their coalition committee to abolish the option of obtaining a sick note by phone. The measure had been introduced during the Covid pandemic as an alternative to visiting a doctor's practice in person, but had recently come under fire, particularly from employer associations and the CDU/CSU, over high numbers of sick days.
The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) called the move a "clear step backwards," arguing the rule had proven itself and served as a good example of cutting red tape. "Studies show that phone-based sick notes do not lead to more sick leave," the vzbv stated, adding that they accounted for only around one percent of all sick notes issued.
The coalition also plans to introduce a "mandatory submission" of a certificate of incapacity to work (AU) "from the first day of illness." Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) stressed, however, that companies would be able to deviate from this through individual or collective bargaining agreements, as well as company-level agreements. Until now, a doctor's certificate has only been required from the fourth day of illness onward.
The "incorrect issuance" of a sick note is also to be punished more severely in future. Verdi chairman Frank Werneke criticized the plan: "If employees now have to drag themselves to the doctor from day one, for example with a flu-like infection, that reflects a fundamental culture of mistrust." Employees are not shirkers, he added, "even if employers and parts of the government suggest otherwise."
Markus Blumenthal-Beier, chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, called the planned rules "absolutely catastrophic." Requiring a sick note from day one would mean millions of additional people having to visit doctors' practices simply to obtain one, "without this making any medical sense whatsoever," he told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. "The result will be longer waiting times for patients who genuinely need our medical help."
Andreas Gassen, chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, told the Rheinische Post that it borders on madness "to send tens of thousands of extra people into practices just to fill out forms. Anyone with a cough or a stomach bug belongs in bed, not in an overcrowded practice." He instead argued for introducing a waiting day, meaning the first day of sick leave would go unpaid.
Chancellor Merz defended the planned sick-note rules against the criticism: "Yes, this is a tough decision, but we can no longer afford the competitive disadvantage caused by our high sickness rates compared to other countries," he said.
The DGB trade union confederation, along with the individual unions Verdi and IG Metall, also opposed extending the maximum period for fixed-term contracts without a justified reason from two to four years, for employees hired by the end of 2030. This shifts entrepreneurial risk onto employees, Verdi chief Werneke said: "That is not acceptable." DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi called it an "unnecessary cutback."
Employer representatives, by contrast, welcomed the planned rule. Rainer Dulger, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, said it represented "the first labor-law flexibilization in decades." The Federation of German Industries described it as a lever that could "unleash growth forces in the medium term."
DGB chair Fahimi, however, was largely positive about the overall outcome of the coalition's decisions, calling the agreed tax package "an important step" for employees. Raising the basic tax-free allowance, along with the corresponding adjustment of the child tax allowance and child benefit, would particularly relieve families, she said.
She also welcomed the slight increase in the threshold for the top tax rate and the smoothing of tax progression in the middle-income bracket as "overdue corrections." Fahimi further praised the 200-euro increase in the flat-rate allowance for employee work-related expenses, as well as the higher tax-free bonuses for Sunday and holiday work.
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