📄 Sick leave for depression
In brief
Depression, too, makes you unfit for work – legally, in principle the same applies as for any other illness. Your doctor issues a certificate of incapacity for work (AU), which since 2023 is generally transmitted electronically (eAU) directly to the health insurance fund and, on request, to the employer. You only have to inform your employer of the incapacity for work, not the diagnosis.
Step by step
- Have incapacity for work certified by a doctorA GP or psychotherapist can issue an AU certificate.
- Inform your employer without delayReport the incapacity for work and its expected duration without delay – at the latest before the end of the third calendar day, unless the employer requires a shorter period.
- Receive continued payFor the first six weeks of incapacity for work the employer continues to pay your full salary, provided the employment relationship has already lasted at least four weeks.
- Apply for sickness benefitFrom the seventh week the health insurance fund pays sickness benefit; make sure you are continuously certified as unfit for work so that your entitlement is not interrupted.
- Keep the maximum duration in mindIf the maximum duration of sickness benefit is reached, you should seek advice early (e.g. on rehabilitation or a reduced earning capacity pension) before payment ends.
Deadlines
- You only have to tell your employer that you are unfit for work – the diagnosis "depression" is in principle none of their business.
- Gaps between two sick notes can endanger your entitlement to sickness benefit – have your sick leave continued without gaps if the incapacity for work continues.
- Since the introduction of the eAU, people with statutory insurance usually no longer have to submit a paper certificate to the employer themselves – the employer retrieves the data electronically; for people with private insurance and in exceptional cases this does not apply automatically.
- Sickness benefit is only paid if further incapacity for work is certified in time and reported to the health insurance fund – you should clarify the deadlines for this with the fund.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Reporting duty and protection of the diagnosis
§ 5 para. 1 EFZG obliges employees to inform the employer of incapacity for work and its expected duration without delay, and to have a medical certificate available at the latest on the third calendar day, unless the employer requires otherwise (including something shorter). The diagnosis itself is not covered by the certificate and does not have to be disclosed to the employer.
Continued pay and sickness benefit
Under § 3 EFZG, in case of incapacity for work due to illness the employer continues to pay wages for six weeks if the employment relationship has already existed uninterrupted for four weeks at that point. After that, statutory health insurance pays sickness benefit of 70 % of gross pay, at most 90 % of net pay (§§ 44 ff. SGB V), for up to 78 weeks within three years for the same illness ("Blockfrist", the three-year reference period, § 48 SGB V). After this period expires ("Aussteuerung"), entitlement to sickness benefit for this illness ends; a new entitlement for the same illness arises only after the reference period has expired and if in the meantime there was no incapacity for work because of it for at least six months.
Electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU)
Since 2023, doctors' practices transmit AU data electronically to the health insurance fund; employers retrieve the data relevant to them electronically. This does not change the employee's duty to report, but reduces the effort of submitting paper certificates for people with statutory insurance.
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