FDP leader Wolfgang Kubicki is urging the coalition partners to abandon their plan to require sick leave documentation from the very first day of illness. Instead, he proposed implementing a new tax-free bonus scheme for employees with low incidence of sickness.
Kubicki told the “Rheinische Post” that the ongoing debate over mandating documentation from day one highlights a problematic trend in Germany, suggesting that issues are increasingly intended to be solved merely through evidence and documentation requirements. The FDP chairman criticized the potential outcome of this measure, arguing it would ultimately result in increased organizational effort, more bureaucracy, greater chaos, and significant frustration.
He suggested that employers should be allowed to pay a tax-free bonus if their employees remain healthy. According to Kubicki, this would serve as an “incentive without micromanagement.”
This initiative to enforce sick leave registration from the initial day was pushed through during the recent coalition committee meetings by the Union (CDU/CSU). However, the SPD has reacted critically to the proposal. Bärbel Bas, the head of the SPD and the Minister of Labour, stated that the measure is not sensible.
