Anyone working in Germany’s public sector who falls ill must report this immediately and is entitled to continued pay from the very first day of employment. That is according to an overview published by the German trade publication Haufe Arbeitsschutz on the rules for reporting sick leave under the TVöD (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst, literally: collective agreement for the public service). The TVöD is the collective labour agreement for salaried employees — not for civil servants (Beamte) with their own separate legal status — working for the German federal government and the municipalities. Employees of the federal states (Länder) are covered by the comparable TV-L, which contains the same rules.
Report immediately, give quick clarity
The rules for reporting sick leave itself are, at first glance, simple: employees must inform their employer without delay on the first day of illness, at the latest by the time their shift was due to start, and must also immediately indicate how long they expect to be unable to work. The law does not prescribe a fixed form: a phone call, WhatsApp message, text message or email is sufficient, as long as that is the usual practice within the organisation. Someone else may also pass on the notification on behalf of the sick employee; what matters is the moment the employer actually becomes aware of it.
If illness lasts more than three calendar days, a doctor’s certificate must follow by the next working day at the latest. Employers may also require that certificate from day one; a general rule applying to multiple employees does, however, require the consent of the works council (Personalvertretung). For employees with statutory health insurance, that paper certificate has no longer been required since the introduction of the electronic sick note (elektronische Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung, eAU) on 1 January 2023. For, among others, privately insured employees, a paper certificate remains mandatory. The reporting obligation itself — that you are ill and roughly how long that will last — nevertheless continues to apply.
Continued pay with no waiting period
The distinctive feature of the TVöD is that continued pay in the event of illness through no fault of one’s own, under § 22 Abs. 1 TVöD (Paragraph 22, Section 1 of the TVöD), takes effect immediately, even in the first four weeks of employment. On this point, the collective agreement goes further than general German law. Statutory continued pay (Entgeltfortzahlung) in principle runs for six weeks. After that, a supplement to the sickness benefit (Krankengeld) paid by the health insurer may follow — the Krankengeldzuschuss — which can continue until the end of the 13th or 39th week of illness at the latest, depending on which rule applies. The source does not state an exact amount for this supplement. For as long as there is an entitlement to continued pay or to the Krankengeldzuschuss, the annual special payment (Jahressonderzahlung) is not reduced because of illness. During that period, under § 17 Abs. 3 lit. b TVöD (Paragraph 17, Section 3, point b), the accrual of service time towards the next pay step (Stufenlaufzeit) also continues to run as normal.
Context
Elsewhere in Europe, too, approaches to sickness absence differ sharply, according to an overview by Ius Laboris, the international network of employment law firms. In the Netherlands, employers must set up a reintegration process, including a problem analysis, an action plan and periodic evaluations. Employees there are, in principle, protected against dismissal due to illness for 104 weeks. An employer who neglects this process can see the continued-pay obligation extended by a year. In Belgium, an employer who has doubts may call in a company-appointed doctor, and dismissal on the grounds of medical force majeure is only possible after typically at least nine months of uninterrupted incapacity for work, via a formal procedure involving the occupational physician. Dismissal purely because of the illness itself is not permitted there. These differences show that reporting sick is, in every country, a legally precisely defined process, with differing arrangements for the reporting deadline, the burden of proof and income protection.
Why this matters outside Germany
For HSE professionals outside Germany, this arrangement shows how the duty to report, the burden of proof and income protection are aligned within a single system. The German rules set out when and how an employee must report sick, from which day a certificate is required, and how that is processed digitally. A timely and clear sick-leave report is, in many countries, also the starting point for absence management and reintegration. Organisations reviewing their own absence protocol can use the German elements as a point of comparison: the reporting deadline, the point at which a certificate is required, digital processing, and the duration of continued pay. Which choices are appropriate depends on national legislation and the applicable collective agreements.
Source: Haufe Arbeitsschutz, “Krankmeldung im öffentlichen Dienst” (20 October 2026). Context: Ius Laboris, “Managing sickness absence in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands”.
