Springe direkt zu Inhalt

Occupational accidents and Sick leave

What to do in case of emergency or illness.

First Aid

Accidents at work and on the way

  • The contact person for occupational accidents is the Dienstelle Arbeitssicherheit (DAS).
  • The injured person must go to a so-called transit doctor: Durchgangsarzt.

  • After an accident at work or on the way to work, no co-payments for medicines and remedies have to be paid. If necessary, point out to the doctor that it could be an accident insured by the accident insurance fund. In this case, you do not need to present your health insurance card, because the doctor will contact the Unfallkasse Berlin directly, cf. the information from the Unfallkasse Berlin.

  • An accident report (Unfallanzeige) must be filled out and sent to the DAS.
  • Helpful information: the sheets on accident notification → Merkblätter zur Unfallanzeige.

Unfallkasse Berlin (UKB) - Berlin Accident Insurance Fund

All employees, with the exception of civil servants, who have an employment contract with the FU-Berlin and all duly enrolled students are insured by the UKB for accidents at work and on the way to and from work and for occupational illnesses (see FU circular on new regulations in the insurance system as of 2004, 02/04, series H).

Unfallkasse Berlin
Culemeyerstr. 2
12277 Berlin
Tel. (030) 7624-0
Email: unfallkasse at unfallkasse-berlin.de

Medical Appointments

In principle, all medical appointments are to be made outside working hours. If this is not possible, an appropriate certificate/sick note must be submitted to the employment office.

For doctor's appointments that take up the entire day, e.g. interval examinations with several appointments spread throughout the day, either leave of absence must be submitted or a medical certificate/sick note must be presented.

If one feels poorly during the course of a workday and goes to the doctor for an acute consultation, this is considered working time; then either continue working or hand in a medical sick note.

Sick leave

see also → Sick Leave/General Absence from Work in Regulations

As of January 1, 2023, electronic retrieval of sick leave data from health insurance companies is mandatory for employers.

Employees must continue to inform Freie Universität Berlin (employer) of their established inability to work. For this purpose, they now no longer hand over a certificate of incapacity for work in paper form, but the employer contacts the health insurance company and retrieves the data there electronically.

This new procedure does not apply to employees who are insured with a private health insurance company or who fall ill abroad and need to be treated there. In these cases, a paper certificate of incapacity for work must still be submitted.

Due to the new regulation, the sickness and health notification form (which secretaries use to inform the personnel office) has been adapted and updated: Krank- und Gesundmeldung. The new form must be used as of January 1, 2023.

On the form, there is now the option to indicate an illness with or without a medical certificate. For the query of the data at the health insurance company, it is very important that it is now precisely separated when employees were ill with and when they were ill without a certificate. This is particularly important if, for example, no sick note was issued by the doctor for the first few days of incapacity for work and then a sick note is issued by the doctor immediately afterwards. In these cases, both categories ("without certificate" and "with certificate") must be filled in on the form.

Reporting sick

There is an obligation to report sick:

  • from the 1st day by telephone/mail/fax at the beginning of the core time on the respective working day.
    Although no information about the type of illness must be provided, the expected duration must be stated.
  • If the duration of the inability to work exceeds 3 days, you must see a doctor on the 4th day. Note that the duration of the inability to work is calculated according to calendar days, not working days!

    Examples:
    • Sick: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thursday recovered - no certificate required
    • Sick: Wed, Thu, Fri, weekend off, Monday healthy again - no certificate necessary
    • Sick: Thu, Fri, weekend scheduled work (only on one day), Monday healthy again - no certificate necessary
    • Sick: Thu, Fri, weekend scheduled work on 2 days - medical certificate required
    • Sick: Thu, Fri, Mon - certificate required. The days of the weekend count here!
    • Sick: Fri, Mon - certificate required. The days of the weekend also count here!

    The first days on which you are allowed to stay at home without a doctor's certificate should be used to estimate whether these days will be sufficient to recover or whether a longer illness is to be expected.

    Since doctors are no longer allowed to issue sick notes retroactively, it is better to go to the doctor in good time, especially if there is a weekend in between (see above)!

  • The sick note is usually sent to the employer's secretary's office, but can also be sent directly to the personnel office if necessary (in this case, however, you must inform your employer's secretary's office that you did that).
  •  The secretary will forward the sick report (Krankmeldung) to the Human Resources Office. Retain copy. The FBV does not need to be informed.
  • Sick leaves of secretaries are reported/sent to FBV Personalangelegenheiten. Also, the secretary's substitute is to be informed.
  • Sickness of children >> Sick leave "child": With this kind of sick leave, the responsible personnel office issues an exemption from work, with which the parent must apply for children's sick pay at their health insurance company. For eligibility periods see: http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/prdahlem/stichworte_a-z/index.html
  • Do not forget your health notification (Gesundmeldung)! Inform your AG secretariat when you're back at work, so they can send the required health note to the personnel office.
  • Further information on "incapacity for work" and "sick notification" is provided by the Staff Council under keywords A-Z: → Personalrat → Stichworte A-Z.
Working despite sick leave?

Employees who feel healthy again despite a doctor's certificate and wish to resume work may do so (information from the Personnel Office I A, 10/2018). In this case, one is not obliged to present a doctor's "health certificate", as a sick note does not constitute a prohibition to work under labor law. Exceptions are illnesses with a high transmission rate, poor treatability or severe course of illness. For more information see:
https://www.praktischarzt.de/blog/gesund-schreiben-lassen.

Incapacity for work or duty

If employees are continuously or repeatedly incapacitated for work or duty for more than 6 weeks within a year, they must be offered assistance as part of a company integration management program: betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement

Illness of children

Info Links:

Essence in English:

You are entitled to sickpay for taking care of your child, if there is no other person living in your household who can look after the child (cf. § 45 SGB V). If you’re not entitled to sickpay, you are entitled to a limited number of sick days per year for each child (check Regulations → Sick leave/General Abssence from Work). If you require more days, you have to draw on your vacation.

Be aware that sickpay (Krankengeld) is usually less than your regular income.

How to proceed:

  • Get a doctor's certificate for your sick child.
  • Write an informal application for „Sonderurlaub“ (special leave) because of your sick child:
    • Text: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, hiermit stelle ich einen Antrag auf Sonderurlaub für den Zeitraum (Datum)-(Datum) (add dates from-to) zur Betreuung meines erkrankten Kindes. Die ärztliche Bescheinigung befindet sich im Anhang als Kopie. Mit freundlichen Grüßen 
    • translation FYI only, please apply in German: Dear Madam or Sir, I am asking for special leave from (date) to (date) to look after my sick child. Find attached a copy of the docotor’s certificate. Kindly, ...
  • Send your informal application + the copy of your doctor’s certificate (= "Ärztliche Bescheinigung für den Bezug von Krankengeld bei Erkrankung des Kindes") to your HR Dept → Personalstelle (e.g. IB20).
  • Send the original doctor’s certificate (= "Ärztliche Bescheinigung für den Bezug von Krankengeld bei Erkrankung des Kindes") to your health insurance.

Related Links