Contents
The basic rule
Where incapacity for work due to illness arises through no fault of the employee, there is an entitlement to continued pay for up to six weeks. The entitlement arises only after the employment relationship has lasted four uninterrupted weeks (section 3(3) EFZG); before that the health insurer pays sick pay.
For statutory public holidays falling on a working day, section 2 EFZG applies: the working time lost has to be paid. That is why a public holiday is credited to the time account with the target time and not booked as an absence.
When the six weeks start again
With a new, different illness the period starts again immediately. With the same illness only where at least six months without incapacity due to that illness lay between the periods, or twelve months have passed since the start of the first incapacity.
Where two illnesses coincide in time, that does not extend the period. Where the second only begins after the first has ended, a new six-week period runs.
How much is paid
On the lost-pay principle, the remuneration that would have accrued without the incapacity (section 4(1) EFZG). Premiums for night, Sunday and public holiday work that would have arisen without the illness are part of it.
What is not part of it is remuneration paid additionally for overtime (section 4(1a) EFZG). Anyone regularly working overtime is therefore not compensated for it during illness.
Example: two periods of illness
- First incapacity due to a slipped disc: 15 January to 20 February, five weeks.
- Second, for the same cause, from 10 April: only one week of entitlement left.
- Reason: no six months without incapacity, no twelve months since 15 January.
- From 17 April the health insurer pays sick pay.
Common mistake
The public holiday gets booked as an absence and the target time is not credited. Over a year, on a five-day week that adds up to as much as 13 days in the negative that nobody caused.
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
- Section 3(1) sentence 1 EFZG
- „Where an employee is prevented from performing their work by incapacity for work due to illness, through no fault of their own, they have a claim against the employer for continued pay during illness for the period of incapacity for up to six weeks.“
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026