Corona: More and more sick leave - companies and associations complain: "We are at the limit"

Created: 2022-03-25Updated: 2022-03-25 06:55

By: Dirk Walter, Katrin Woitsch

In some supermarkets, more than ten percent of the employees are currently absent due to Corona.

© JFK

The number of infections in Bavaria keeps rising to new record highs.

As a result, there are also more and more staff absences due to Corona.

Many associations and companies report that employees are working at the limit.

61,834 people in Bavaria reported a Corona* infection to the health authorities on Wednesday – this roughly corresponds to the population of Rosenheim.

The number of infections is increasing almost every day.

And the authorities assume that they are actually significantly higher.

Some infections remain undetected, and there are often delays in reporting.

Corona in Germany: "It's difficult everywhere right now"

In many professions, workers are struggling with the high number of sick leave reports.

"It's difficult everywhere right now," says a spokeswoman for the IHK Munich and Upper Bavaria.

Especially in the professions in which the employees cannot continue to work from home if they are infected with no or mild symptoms*.

For example in the supermarkets.

"Currently, more than ten percent of our employees are on sick leave or in quarantine or in isolation because their children are infected," reports Bernd Ohlmann, spokesman for the Bavarian Trade Association.

In addition, there are about the same number of employees who are on vacation or doing training to acquire the necessary certificates.

"A lot has accumulated in the last two years of the pandemic."

Corona virus makes things difficult for supermarket chains: there are no truck drivers

Truck drivers would also be absent in large numbers, says Ohlmann.

Because of Corona and because of the war, because there are no drivers from Ukraine.

"Supermarket chains with many branches can shift staff to compensate for the shortfalls a little." Ohlmann reports that part-time employees also help out.

Or students.

“Nevertheless, we are up to our necks in water.

The food supply is still secured.

But after two years of the pandemic, many of our employees are at the limit.”

Sick reports due to Corona hit care facilities hard

In many care facilities, the situation is also tense, but still manageable, report AWO and Caritas.

In some teams, up to 30 percent of the employees are absent, says Munich AWO boss Hans Kopp.

Workers' Welfare pays everyone who steps in and works overtime a bonus to compensate.

A spokesman for Caritas reports that the strength of many carers is becoming less and less due to the extremely high workload.

They are thin-skinned.

And frustrated by the loosening of the corona virus.

There are no facilities in which there are currently no failures.

Lisa Pfeiffer from the Bavarian Association of Daycare Specialists

The situation in the Bavarian day-care centers is particularly tense.

"We are currently struggling with an enormous number of failures," says Lisa Pfeiffer from the Association of Daycare Specialists.

"There are no facilities where there are no failures." The educators have been trying for months to compensate for the cases of illness.

"But they've long been at the limit," emphasizes Pfeiffer.

The parents are exhausted too.

Many react sympathetically to failures or group closures, reports Pfeiffer.

"Sometimes we get all the frustration and pressure."

In schools, over five percent of students are currently out of action because of Corona – 3.62 percent are infected and another 1.54 percent are in quarantine.

The numbers are similar for teachers – 4.4 percent are infected, 0.36 percent are in quarantine.

Corona: Relatively relaxed situation in local public transport

The situation in local public transport is still relatively relaxed.

Only a few bus companies in the MVV area report such major bottlenecks among drivers that bus timetables had to be cut.

This is currently only the case for four lines, says MVV spokeswoman Franziska Hartmann.

These are 936 Gauting-Fürstenried West, 947 Gilching-Argelsried-Neugilching-DLR-Weßling, 949 Gilching-Argelsried-Gauting and 965 Buchendorf-Gauting-Pentenried-Unterbrunn.

The Munich S-Bahn reports increased sick leave among the train drivers.

But there are no failures in S-Bahn operations.

“Currently, operations are running smoothly and smoothly,” says a railway spokesman.