Employer Refuses an Online Sick Note: Your Rights

Does an employer have to accept an online sick note?

As proof of incapacity for work the law requires a medical certificate (section 5 (1) of the Continued Remuneration Act). It does not prescribe how the doctor arrived at their finding. A certificate from a video consultation is therefore just as much medical proof as one from a practice, as long as genuine contact with a doctor took place.

The Arbeitsgericht Erfurt expressly gave a private video sick note full evidential value: the doctor had seen the patient in the video consultation and had her show a temperature reading (judgment of 19 July 2023, case no. 4 Ca 32/23).

Does that apply to statutory insurance with a private certificate too?

Yes. As a patient with statutory insurance you may also use private medical services as a self-payer, and the certificate issued is full proof in employment law terms.

A technical difference explains many misunderstandings: panel doctors report incapacity for work electronically to the health insurer and the employer retrieves it there (eAU). That retrieval route exists only in the statutory panel-doctor system. A private certificate you receive as a document and submit yourself; the fact that your employer cannot find it in the eAU system does not make it invalid. In that case point out that it is a private certificate that you are presenting directly.

What can an employer do if they have doubts, and what not?

A proper medical certificate carries high evidential value in court. If the employer wants to shake it, they have to set out concrete circumstances, for example that the certificate was issued without any contact with a doctor.

That is exactly where the models differ: the Landesarbeitsgericht Hamm upheld the summary dismissal of an employee who had submitted a certificate issued solely through an online questionnaire (judgment of 5 September 2025, case no. 14 SLa 145/25). A certificate following a genuine video consultation with findings is not affected by that case law; it documents actual contact with a doctor.

Your employer may not demand a diagnosis. The employer copy of the certificate contains none for good reason: they simply have no claim to the diagnosis.

How should you respond if your employer refuses?

First: stay calm and put it in writing. Submit the certificate as a PDF or printout and ask for written reasons if it is not accepted.

Second: point to section 5 (1) of the Continued Remuneration Act and to the fact that the certificate was issued by a doctor licensed in Germany after personal contact by video. With a private certificate, add that the eAU retrieval does not apply here for systemic reasons.

Third: if the employer persists and withholds pay, that is a case for legal advice, from a trade union, legal expenses insurance or a lawyer specialising in employment law. Where there was genuine contact with a doctor, the case law is on your side.