Continued wage
Can my boss keep my wages if I am sick?
At Tesla in Grünheide, sick employees are not said to have received their continued payment of wages. Is that allowed at all? These are the right and duties in the event of illness.
In the Tesla plant in Grünheide, the company is said to have hired the continued payment of wages after sick leave. Tesla has often questioned sick reports. At least that’s how it is allowed to simply suspend the continued payment of wages in the event of doubts?
If employees are sick in this country, they are entitled to continued wages. And for a long time. For the first time, this principle was formulated in the general German Commercial Code of 1861, expanded in 1891 in the Occupational Safety Act.
Continued wage is employee law
Today the continued payment law applies in Germany. According to this, employers have to pay their wages, including regular overtime, for up to six weeks. And gross. Employees have the obligation to report an illness to their employer immediately. At the latest from the fourth calendar day of the disease, sick people must present a certificate of incapacity for work (AU). However, employers can also request these from the first day of the disease if they have previously communicated this.
Important: The type, cause and scope of a disease are fundamentally private of the employee, treating doctors and health insurers are generally subject to confidentiality.
Employees who are unable to work for more than six weeks at a time receive the so -called sickness benefit, an insurance benefit that can be paid for up to three years under certain conditions.
If the employer doubts the disease
If the employer has doubts about incapacity to work, these are fundamentally justified in accordance with §275 Social Code V if either an employee is noticeably or conspicuously briefly on sick leave. Or if an employee is often on sick leave at the beginning or end of a working week.
In the event that is justified, employers may submit a so -called “connection request” to the employee’s health insurance company. This can clarify whether there is a basic condition that needs to be treated regularly. Not more. In addition, employers can request an assessment of the insured by the health insurance companies by the Medical Service (MD). However, the health insurers can reject this if the AU can be clearly traced from the available diagnoses.
The case that an MD report would be approved by the cash register first, and secondly, it would deviate from the assessment of the employee of the employee, only the doctor and the cash register would initially be informed. If the treating doctor cannot further justify his previously existing assessment, the cash register only transmits the employer the information as to whether an AU has been confirmed from the medical service and until when. The procedure is complex and lengthy for employers, and can therefore point out the goal of dismissal -related termination of the employee. However, whether the employer would get through it is dependent on the individual case and usually decides before the labor court.
Home visits, control calls and Co.
Employers are generally not forbidden to contact diseased employees, be it by phone, in writing or personally. However, sick employees do not have to react to this. Personal visits to the employer, so -called “caring”, must be announced beforehand and can be rejected by the employee. Like any other type of pressure on diseased employees, the employer’s inspection visits are not permitted.
Diseased workers are, however, encouraged their own behavior during an incapacity to work for their rapid overcoming. In principle, however, all activities that do not harm recovery are allowed.
Source: Stern
