Sick call comes too late – are employees threatened with a warning?
Created: 11/24/2022, 7:30 am
By: Anne Hund
Employees must report sick to their employer in good time.
What that means and what mistakes you should absolutely avoid in case of illness.
Nobody likes to be sick.
But even if you are not doing well, as an employee you are obliged to report your inability to work and its probable duration to your employer immediately.
But what does "immediately" mean?
Immediately my "
without culpable hesitation",
informs the law firm Hasselbach on their homepage.
"As an employee, you must inform the employer as early as possible," it says.
This should “be able to react to the loss of work at an early stage, for example to organize a substitute.
As a rule, sick leave must be received within the first few hours of operation”.
Reporting sick to the employer – how do you report sick?
The sick note should be given “immediately”.
(Iconic image) © Erwin Wodicka/Imago
According to a report by the German Press Agency (dpa), Jürgen Markowski, specialist lawyer for labor law, does not provide for a special form of sick leave.
The notification can be made orally, by telephone, by SMS, by fax or by e-mail.
Attention: In some companies, the employer makes specific announcements in advance about how the sick note must be sent and who should be informed in any case as a (direct) contact person in the event of a sick note, for example.
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Sick call is late?
Warning or even dismissal in a row possible
If proper notification is not available, this can have significant consequences: If the employee does not show up at work without prior notice in the event of illness, according to the legal experts, he risks a warning.
Employees who repeatedly violate the obligation to report can, in the worst case, even be fired for behavioral reasons after a corresponding warning.
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When does the AU have to be submitted to the employer?
In many cases, if the illness lasts longer than three days, employees must submit a certificate of incapacity for work, or AU for short.
Important: When calculating the deadline, the calendar days and not the working days apply.
So if you fall ill before the weekend, you have to include Saturday and Sunday in the submission deadline.
However, it can also be stipulated in the employment contract that the employer may demand sick leave from the first day of illness.