[REVISION HISTORY]

German employment law and sick leave regulations

Updated 1 time since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-10-23 08:43 UTC → 2026-10-27 11:23 UTC · added ~~removed~~

Legal requirements for employees in Germany regarding sick leave and vacation time involve specific notification and reporting duties. Under the electronic incapacity for work certificate (eAU) system, employers retrieve medical data electronically from health insurance providers. However, employees are still legally obligated to notify their employers of an inability to work immediately on the first day of ~~illness.~~ illness and before the scheduled start of work. While employees are not required to disclose specific medical diagnoses, they must provide information regarding the expected duration of their absence. Regarding financial support, employers are responsible for continued wage payment for up to six weeks, provided the employment relationship has existed uninterrupted for at least four weeks. If illness persists beyond this period, employees may be eligible for sick pay (Krankengeld) for up to 78 weeks within a three-year period for the same illness. Recent judicial developments have clarified the scope of employee duties. The State Labour Court of Baden-Württemberg (LAG) ruled that employment contract clauses requiring sick employees to report ‘any urgent work’ are invalid due to excessive vagueness. The court determined that such broad clauses unfairly require employees to report tasks that an employer could have identified independently. Additionally, the Federal Labour Court (BAG) has reaffirmed that employers must implement reliable, objective, and accessible systems to record daily working hours to ensure compliance with occupational health and safety laws. In sectors like logistics, industry associations are transitioning toward mandatory digital time tracking to replace handwritten documentation. Regarding vacation, the Federal Vacation Act establishes the calendar year as the standard period for leave. Following a 2019 Federal Labour Court ruling, employers cannot claim statutory vacation days have expired unless they have fulfilled a duty to inform the employee of their remaining balance and provided an explicit warning regarding expiration. Failure to comply with reporting obligations, such as notifying an employer of a change in residence during illness, can result in financial consequences, including the reduction or cessation of wage payments.

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