Sickness Absence Management - Employee Rights, Risks And Recommendations

France

Under French law, the employment contract of an employee who is on sick leave is suspended. The employee is expected to inform his or her employer and the relevant social security organisations of the sickness absence within 48 hours, and will be entitled to receive social security allowances while absent from work.

Depending on the provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement, employees may be entitled to receive their full salary for a limited period. In such cases it falls to the employer to pay the difference between usual salary and the allowances provided by the French social security organisations.

Employees suffering from a workplace accident or occupational disease benefit from protection during their sick leave, meaning that their employment cannot be terminated.

In addition, even where absences are not caused by an occupational disease or workplace accident, some collective bargaining agreements will prohibit an employer from terminating an employee's employment during sick leave. In cases where collective bargaining agreements do not contain such provisions, an employee can be dismissed during sick leave for reasons not related to his or her state of health, or where prolonged or repeated absences disorganise the functioning of the company, making permanent replacement of the employee necessary.

Employers should therefore take note of the provisions of any applicable collective bargaining agreement before applying any measure to employees away on sickness absence, since these provisions are generally favourable to employees.

Also, employers should ensure that a work resumption examination is carried out (i) after an employee has suffered an occupational disease, no matter how long the duration of the absence was, and (ii) 30 days after work accident or absence for sick leave which is not linked with an occupational disease.

Germany

In Germany, an employee is generally entitled to receive sick pay amounting to 100% of his or her salary for up to six weeks. German national health insurance compensates employers for 80% of sick pay so long as the employer does not employ more than 30 employees.

Where an illness lasts longer than six weeks, the employee will receive a sickness allowance from the national health insurer amounting to 70% of the employee's salary for a period of up to 78 weeks. The situation is more complicated if the employee suffers from numerous different illnesses and/or returns to work...