Ill advice

European companies are concerned about the rising cases of sick leaves among their workers.

Workers in Germany on average took 15.1 days of sick leave last year, up from 11.1 days in 2021, according to federal statistics agency Destatis. The TK, one of Germany’s major statutory health insurers, reported the average number of sick days among workers it covers was 14.13 in the first nine months of the year — a record high.

According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, Germans missed on average 6.8 percent of their working hours in 2023 due to illness — worse than other European Union countries such as France, Italy and Spain.

Critics say a system of allowing patients with mild symptoms to get sick notes from their doctor over the phone is providing employees who could work an easy way to take days off — or fake illnesses entirely, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Some industry groups are calling for the system, first introduced during the Covid pandemic, to be abolished. German employers are tapping private detectives, like Marcus Lentz, to deal with the problem.

Lentz said in many cases where people are pretending to be sick for long periods, they are doing work on the side, according to AFP.

While it can be expensive to hire a detective, Lentz said firms will be looking to get rid of highly unproductive workers at a time of mounting economic woes.

“They (firms) say, anyone who is off sick so often is not making us any money — out they go,” he told AFP.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the small Italian town of Belcastro has a way to keep 1,300 constituents out of the hospital, though not necessarily free from sickness.

Mayor Antonio Torchia has issued a decree that would well serve the elderly residents especially.

The decree orders everyone “to avoid contracting any illness that requires medical assistance, especially an emergency,” Torchia told CNN.

Citing his reason, the mayor said the local health center is often closed and on-call doctors are not available on weekends, holidays or after hours, according to CNN.

Moreover, the nearest emergency room is about 45 kilometers away in Catanzaro, so it was necessary to “adopt an urgent and non-deferrable act of a precautionary nature,” he said, CNN reports.

“The ordinance is a cry for help, a way to shine a spotlight on an unacceptable situation,” Torchia told local news outlet Corriere della Calabria, according to CNN.