💼 Continued pay during sick leave after a crime
In brief
If you are signed off sick as unfit for work as a result of a crime, you are in principle entitled to continued payment of wages by your employer for up to six weeks (§ 3 Continued Remuneration Act, Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz, EFZG) – the cause of the incapacity for work plays no role, as long as you are not at fault for it. After the six weeks, the health insurer generally pays sickness benefit (Krankengeld).
If your employer continues to pay you wages during the incapacity for work, it can, as with other third-party fault, in turn assert your claim for compensation against the offender up to the amount of the wages continued – this passes to the employer by operation of law (§ 115 SGB X). For you, this changes nothing about your usual continued pay.
Step by step
- Get a medical sick noteAs with any incapacity for work, obtain a medical certificate and submit it to your employer on time.
- Inform your employerReport the incapacity for work without delay; you do not necessarily have to disclose the reason (crime) in detail, but it may be relevant for later claims.
- Check continued payWithin the first six weeks you have a regular entitlement to continued payment of wages by your employer.
- After six weeks: sickness benefitFrom the seventh week of incapacity for work, sickness benefit from the statutory health insurer generally replaces continued pay.
Deadlines
- The entitlement to continued pay lapses if the employee was at fault for the incapacity for work (§ 3 Abs. 1 EFZG) – as the victim of a crime caused by someone else, you are generally not affected by this.
- The transfer of claims under § 115 SGB X concerns the relationship between employer and offender, not your entitlement to continued pay – nothing changes for you.
- In the case of longer-lasting health consequences (e.g. persistent psychological impairment), an application for benefits under SGB XIV can make sense in parallel.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
§ 3 EFZG: entitlement to continued pay
If an employee is prevented from working by incapacity for work due to illness through no fault of their own, they are entitled to continued payment of wages by the employer for the period of incapacity for work for up to six weeks. For the application of the EFZG it makes no difference that the incapacity for work was caused by a crime committed by a third party, as long as there is no fault on the employee's part.
§ 115 SGB X: transfer of claims to the employer
If the employer continues to pay wages during the incapacity for work, the employee's claim for damages against the person who caused the harm passes to the employer to the extent that the employer has provided social benefits (here: wages under continued pay). This relieves the employee of having to claim the loss of earnings for the first six weeks from the offender themselves.
Follow-on by sickness benefit
After the six-week continued pay period ends, if incapacity for work persists, sickness benefit from the statutory health insurer regularly replaces wages (SGB V).
A question about your situation that this page does not answer? Write to us or use the contact form – we will tell you which office is responsible and what to bring. Free of charge, without individual legal advice.