Dismissal on grounds of sickness in Germany is a subpart of the dismissal on grounds of personal capability.
Generally any illness is not a reasonable condition to dismiss an employee.
However continuous sickleaves or a long lasting illness causes high costs for a company. A specific juridical definition of such a dismissal is not stated in the German law. To address this issue, the law in Germany sets certain frame conditions with a specific testing scheme in three stages for it. During this process, certain circumstances have to be proven in order to legally dismiss an employee.
Four different typical types of dismissal on grounds of sickness exist in the German law, which are divided in long-lasting sickness, permanent incapacity for work, reduced performance and frequent short-term sickleaves of the employee. All of those can lead to a dismissal. The obligatory three-stage testing scheme needs to prove a negative forecast of the health of the employee, a severe harm to the company through the sickness and the company has to balance the interests of the company and the employee.
Along with that, the application of a reintegration management after sickness has to be applied.
Within this process the appropriate participation of the works council according to law and the law of equality has to be respected.
The major burden of proof remains in the whole process on the employer, however the highest risk stays with the employee. As there is no prescribed timeline, a long-lasting law process can harm an employee even more as he has to suffer not only from his illness but also from the financial pressure.
Table of Contents
ABBREVIATIONS
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
1. IMPORTANT LEGAL DEFINITIONS
1.1. SICKNESS
1.2. UNABLE TO WORK
1.3. HANDICAPPED
2. TYPES OF DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF SICKNESS
2.1. DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF LONG-LASTING ILLNESS
2.2. DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF PERMANENT INCAPACITY FOR WORK
2.3. DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF SICKNESS INDUCED REDUCED PERFORMANCE
2.4. DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF FREQUENT SHORT-TERM SICK LEAVES
3. THREE STAGE TESTING SCHEME
3.1. NEGATIVE FORECAST
3.2. SIGNIFICANT IMPEDIMENTS OF CORPORATE INTERESTS
3.3. BALANCING OF INTERESTS
4. REINTEGRATION MANAGEMENT AFTER SICKNESS
5. JURIDICAL POLICY GUIDELINES FOR THE DISMISSAL ON GROUNDS OF SICKNESS
5.1. ALCOHOLISM
5.2. OPERATIONS RELATED SICKNESS
5.3. FREQUENT SHORT-TERM SICK-LEAVES
5.4. SICKNESS INDUCED REDUCED PERFORMANCE
5.5. LONG-TERM SICKNESS
6. THE BURDEN OF PROOF
7. PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKS COUNCIL
8. LIMITATIONS OF THE LEGISLATION
9. THE GENERAL EQUAL TREATMENT ACT (AGG)
10. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X.