How many sick days do you have left?

In German employment law, the same figure keeps coming up when you are ill: six weeks within twelve months. If you are off sick for longer, your employer must offer you workplace reintegration management (Betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement, BEM). The same limit also serves as a guide when it comes to whether a dismissal due to illness is possible – but then looked at over several years (more under Dismissal).

The count is rolling: what matters is the last twelve months from today, not the calendar year. Six weeks are not always 30 days – for repeated short illnesses, it depends on how many days a week you work:

If you were unable to work for more than six weeks within twelve months – in one go or in several periods – your employer must offer you a BEM. Together you work out how the incapacity can be overcome, how a new illness can be prevented and how your job can be kept.

• For all employees – not only for people with severe disabilities, and regardless of the size of the company.
• Voluntary for you: your employer must offer the BEM, but you may decline it or stop at any time.
• Not alone: you can bring a person of trust of your choice; the works or staff council and – if you have a severe disability – the representative for severely disabled employees are involved if you agree.
• Data protection: you must be informed in advance about the aims of the BEM and the data collected for it. You do not have to disclose your diagnosis.

After the BEM, the count starts again

After a completed BEM, only the days of absence afterwards count. If you are again unable to work for more than six weeks within a year after it was completed, a new BEM must generally be offered (Federal Labour Court, judgment of 18 Nov 2021 – 2 AZR 138/21).

If you are unable to work due to illness, your employer continues to pay your full salary for up to six weeks – that is 42 calendar days. The condition is that your employment has already lasted four weeks without interruption.

The same illness is added up

If you repeatedly fall ill with the same illness, the periods are added together – you only get the 42 days once. You only have a new entitlement to six weeks if

• you were not unable to work because of this illness for at least six months before falling ill again, or
• twelve months have passed since the start of the first incapacity due to this illness.

A new, different illness generally triggers a new entitlement to six weeks – unless it starts while you are still on sick leave for the first one. Then both count as a single case of illness.

From day 43: sickness benefit

When continued pay ends, the statutory health insurance fund steps in for those insured with it. Sickness benefit (Krankengeld) amounts to 70 % of your gross salary, but no more than 90 % of your net salary; social security contributions are then deducted. For the same illness, sickness benefit is paid for a maximum of 78 weeks within three years – the weeks of continued pay are included.

To the sickness benefit calculator →

Your duties when you call in sick

• Report it immediately: tell your employer without delay that you are ill and how long it is likely to last.
• See a doctor by day 4 at the latest: if the illness lasts longer than three calendar days, you need a medical certificate by the following workday at the latest. Your employer, employment contract or collective agreement may require it earlier, for example from the first day. If you are ill for longer than certified, you need a new certificate.
• eAU: for people with statutory health insurance, the employer retrieves the electronic sick note directly from the health insurance fund. The employer does not learn the diagnosis.

→ Sickness benefit calculator 2026: To the sickness benefit calculator ↗

Yes – but only under strict conditions. If the Dismissal Protection Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz) applies to you (as a rule: more than ten employees in the business and your employment has lasted more than six months), labour courts examine a dismissal due to illness in three stages. All three must be met:

1. Negative health prognosis

   Your past absences must indicate that you will continue to be absent to a considerable extent in the future. A common rule of thumb is absences of more than six weeks in each of roughly the last three years.

2. Significant impact on the business

   The absences must lead to serious disruption of operations or high economic costs – for example continued pay costs of more than six weeks per year.

3. Balancing of interests

   In the individual case, the employer's interest must outweigh yours in keeping your job – taking into account, for example, length of service, age, cause of the illness and whether a BEM was offered.

Your doctor’s practice sends every sick note electronically to your health insurance fund (eAU). At most funds you can see the list directly in the app – and you always have the right to request an overview. Choose your fund:

Betreff: Auskunft über meine Arbeitsunfähigkeitszeiten

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

bitte senden Sie mir eine Übersicht aller bei Ihnen gespeicherten Zeiten meiner Arbeitsunfähigkeit der letzten drei Jahre – jeweils mit Beginn, Ende und Diagnose.

Ich mache damit mein Auskunftsrecht nach Art. 15 DSGVO in Verbindung mit § 83 SGB X geltend.

Name:
Geburtsdatum:
Versichertennummer:

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Then simply enter the periods in the app – with the same note for the same illness.

As of: October 2026. The menus of the funds’ apps can change – the information from your health insurance fund is what counts.