(de-news.net) – A possible reassessment of a policy instrument introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic has been signaled by Germany’s Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU), who has announced a formal review of the regulations governing telephone-based sick leave certification. According to media reports, she explained that the existing framework would be subjected to closer examination because the governing coalition had already committed itself, within its coalition agreement, to identifying and preventing potential misuse. In this context, Warken indicated that the review was not intended to preserve current arrangements by default, but rather to evaluate their continued suitability. The overarching objective, she suggested, was to arrive at solutions that are both practical and proportionate, balancing administrative feasibility with systemic integrity.

These remarks followed public statements by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had criticized what he characterized as an excessively high level of absenteeism in Germany. Speaking at an event in the state of Baden-Württemberg, he drew attention to the option of telephone-based certification as one factor contributing to an average of 14.5 sick days per employee. The instrument was initially introduced in 2021 as an emergency measure designed to limit physical contact and reduce infection risks during the pandemic. It was subsequently established as a permanent feature of the system under the tenure of former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). Against this background, Merz questioned whether a mechanism justified under exceptional crisis conditions continued to be appropriate once those conditions had passed and routine circumstances had returned.

Warken aligned herself with the Chancellor’s overall assessment and framed his intervention as an observation grounded in empirical data rather than as a normative reproach. She noted that, in comparative international terms, Germany’s rate of sickness absence is relatively high. At the same time, she underscored that acknowledging this statistical reality was not intended to cast suspicion on employees who are genuinely ill and therefore unable to work. Nonetheless, she argued that maintaining confidence in the system requires confronting the structural risks inherent in low-threshold access mechanisms. In her view, the ease with which telephone-based certification can be obtained creates opportunities for misuse, and addressing this vulnerability is a necessary component of any effort to safeguard the credibility and sustainability of the existing framework.