"Too Many Sick Leaves"... German Companies Hire Detectives to Investigate Employees' Backgrounds

Private Detectives: "Up to 1,200 Corporate Requests Annually"
Easier Sick Leave After COVID-19 Leads to Abuse

There are increasing reports of German companies hiring private detectives to investigate whether employees who have taken sick leave are actually ill.

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On the 11th, the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP), AFP, and others reported that requests from companies to private detective agencies in Germany to investigate employees are flooding in, adding explanations from Markus Lentz, who runs a private detective agency in Frankfurt. He said that recently, there have been many requests from companies to investigate employees suspected of taking sick leave despite being able to work, and it appears that companies are hiring private detectives to dismiss low-productivity employees amid the economic downturn.

Lentz stated, "More and more companies are unwilling to tolerate employees who take sick leave falsely," adding, "We receive up to about 1,200 corporate requests annually, which is double the number compared to a few years ago." He added, "If someone takes 30, 40, or sometimes up to 100 days of sick leave in a year, at some point, it becomes economically unattractive for the employer." SCMP explained that Germany is among the European countries with high sick leave rates, which has increased due to many people abusing the simplified sick leave procedures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In Germany, it has become increasingly common for companies to verify the situations of employees who have taken sick leave. German media covered a case last month where a Tesla Germany plant HR manager visited employees' homes without prior notice to check if they were malingering. As employee absenteeism increased, it was reported that such measures were taken because the situation was seen as demotivating other workers. The Federal Statistical Office reported that the overall sick leave rate for German workers in 2023 was 6.1%, with the automotive industry average at 5.2%. In contrast, Tesla Germany plant management claimed that employee sick leave rates reached 15-17% last August. The German Metalworkers' Union (IG Metall) countered that the high sick leave rates were due to high labor intensity, not malingering.

In October last year, Ola K?llenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, criticized in an interview with Der Spiegel, saying, "The high sick leave rate in Germany is a problem for companies," and "If Germany's sick leave rate is twice as high as other European countries under the same production conditions, it results in economic consequences." CEO K?llenius did not disclose exact figures related to German employees' sick leave conditions. However, he added, "We are making great efforts for employee health, including work processes reflecting industrial safety and ergonomics, and flu vaccinations," and "To improve further, efforts are needed in all aspects."

According to statistics presented by Oliver B?te, CEO of Allianz, in an article for the economic newspaper Handelsblatt, the average number of sick leave days for German workers in 2023 was 19.4 days, more than double that of Switzerland (9.2 days). He argued, "If it were not for the extremely high sick leave rate, the German economy would have grown by nearly 0.5% last year instead of shrinking by 0.3%."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.