The Verdi services trade union has sharply criticized the government’s reform package, viewing the planned requirement for workers to provide a doctor’s certificate from the first day of illness as an expression of a culture of mistrust.
“Mistrust toward employees and the expansion of the madness of fixed-term employment contracts do not create growth,” said Frank Werneke, head of Verdi, which is Germany’s second-largest trade union.
IG Metall, Germany’s largest trade union, was more mixed in its response than Verdi, describing the package as a “mixed bag of light and shadow.”
Christiane Benner, the union’s chair, welcomed planned tax relief for workers. But she lamented the expansion of fixed-term employment contracts, calling it an “attack on workers’ rights.” She also opposed the abolition of telephone sick notes, saying it fulfilled employers’ “antisocial wish list.”
Felix Banaszak, co-leader of the Green Party, sharply criticized the government’s reform package, saying it amounted to a “vote of no confidence in citizens.”
The socialist Left Party condemned the coalition’s reform package as a “program of mistrust and ignorance.”
“A few euros less in taxes do not compensate for higher living costs, insecure pensions, and rising burdens in the healthcare system,” the party leadership said.
Family doctors described the government’s plans on sick notes as “absolutely catastrophic.”
Markus Blumenthal-Beier, chairman of the German Medical Association, said the coalition was “accepting the complete overburdening of our doctors’ practices.”
He said it would lead to a “massive wave of bureaucracy” and longer waiting times for patients in need.
