Germany is currently experiencing a structural crisis characterized by declining exports, rising energy costs, and decreasing competitiveness in key sectors. However, executives from some of the country’s major businesses attribute much of the problem to excessive employee sick leave.
Several German employers have expressed concern over what they describe as a record-breaking year for illness-related absences. Reports indicate that a significant number of German workers are taking sick leave at a rate nearly four times higher than that of the U.K., reinforcing Germany’s unfortunate “Sick Man of Europe” label.
Research conducted by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Germany’s largest health insurance fund, revealed that in 2023, workers missed an average of 19.4 workdays due to illness, marking a historical high. This trend appears set to continue in 2024, with TK reporting that its 5.7 million insured workers recorded 14.3 sick days in the first nine months of the year, ahead of the typically illness-prone festive season.
Although Germany has largely avoided a technical recession, its economy contracted by 0.3% in 2023 and is projected to decline by 0.2% this year. Comparisons show that German employees took 15 days of sick leave in 2022, while U.K. workers averaged 5.7 days.
The German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA) suggests that if not for the above-average number of sick days, Germany’s economy might have expanded by 0.5% in 2023 instead of experiencing a 0.3% contraction. According to VFA, the high rate of sickness potentially cost Germany’s economy approximately €26 billion last year.
These insights have not gone unnoticed by German employers, some of whom question the authenticity of their employees’ illnesses. An unnamed executive from a prominent manufacturing company mentioned a lack of willingness among workers to make necessary sacrifices for economic prosperity, particularly criticizing younger workers as being “work-shy.”
German law allows workers to take up to six weeks of sick leave with full pay, a policy that has exasperated some employers. In September, management at Tesla’s Grünheide plant visited the homes of about 30 employees who had reported illness, as the company noted a 5% increase in worker absences on Fridays and during late shifts. Tesla’s manufacturing director in Germany, André Thierig, explained that this pattern does not indicate poor working conditions since the same conditions exist across all shifts, suggesting possible exploitation of the German social system.
Albrecht Wehner, a health management expert at TK, contended that attributing the country’s economic challenges solely to an uptick in cold and flu cases is overly simplistic. Wehner pointed out that long-term diagnoses, such as mental illnesses, although affecting fewer employees, result in a comparatively high number of days off.
Germany faces a complex array of social and economic challenges without straightforward solutions. The country’s manufacturing-heavy economy remains susceptible to global shocks and is losing its competitive edge in the face of growing competition from China. These issues have impacted German exports, which represent a significant portion of the country’s GDP, while past reliance on Russian oil and gas created a surge in energy prices following sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Everything that could go wrong went wrong, or is going wrong,” Carsten Brzeski, ING’s Global Head of Macro, previously summarized.
