From When Do You Need a Sick Note?

From When Do You Need a Sick Note?

By law the medical certificate has to be presented at the latest on the working day following the third calendar day of the illness. So if you are ill from Monday, it has to reach your employer on Thursday.

The difference between the two periods matters: the three days are calendar days, so weekends and public holidays count. Presenting it, by contrast, has to happen on a working day. If you are ill from Friday, the three calendar days are up on Sunday and you have to present the certificate on Monday.

May my employer ask for it earlier?

Yes, and without any particular reason. Section 5 (1) sentence 3 of the German Continued Remuneration Act expressly allows the employer to require earlier presentation, even from the first day of illness. No justification and no suspicion are needed.

Many employment contracts and works agreements settle this from the outset. It is therefore worth looking at your own contract before relying on the statutory deadline. During a probation period in particular, companies often make use of it.

What do you have to do immediately, regardless of the certificate?

Report in. The duty to notify is separate from the duty to provide proof and applies immediately: you must tell your employer without delay that you are unable to work and how long it is likely to last. Without delay usually means before work starts on the first day.

That duty applies even if you do not have a certificate yet, and even if the sick note is later transmitted electronically to your health insurer. Retrieval by the employer does not replace your notification.

Will the certificate soon be required from day one?

That is the plan. On 2 July 2026 the coalition committee agreed to bring the duty of proof forward to the first day of illness in general and to abolish the telephone sick note. There is no law on it yet, and no ministerial draft either.

Until then the existing rules stand: by law from the fourth day, earlier by contract if your employer provides for it. The video consultation is expressly not affected by the planned change and is named in the political reasoning as the route that remains.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

Your employer may withhold continued pay until you provide the proof. The entitlement itself does not lapse, but the money comes later. Repeated breaches can also justify a formal warning.

Having the certificate issued afterwards for days already past is not a solution: a doctor can only certify what they have established, and backdated certificates are a narrowly limited exception.

And if you cannot get an appointment in time?

If your family practice can be reached and has an appointment, that is always the first route. If you cannot get one, the video consultation remains: you choose an appointment online and speak by video to a doctor licensed in Germany.

If incapacity for work is medically justifiable, you receive the certificate as a PDF; the doctor sets the duration individually, and a backdated start is possible. The consultation usually costs €49.99 and is billed privately under the German scale of fees for doctors.

With warning signs such as shortness of breath, chest pain or sudden severe pain, by contrast, the examination belongs in a practice or an emergency department, not in a video consultation.