What happens if an employee falls sick within the first four weeks of employment in Germany?

In Germany, if an employee becomes ill during the first four weeks of their employment, the rules regarding sick pay differ from the standard continued remuneration process.

According to German labor law, employees are not entitled to continued sick pay (Entgeltfortzahlung) from their employer during the initial four-week waiting period of their employment. Instead, the responsibility for compensation during this period shifts to the statutory health insurance provider.

This means that:

The employee will not receive sick pay directly from the employer during the first four weeks.
The employee will instead receive sick benefit (Krankengeld) from their statutory health insurance provider, assuming they are insured accordingly.
The employer will reduce the employee’s gross salary proportionally to account for the days of absence due to illness.

It is important to note that the sick benefit paid by the health insurance is typically lower than the employee's regular net salary.

In this article...

Germany

What happens if an employee falls sick within the first four weeks of employment in Germany?