Phased return to work
A phased return to work is a step-by-step return to the workplace after a prolonged illness, with gradually increasing working time. It is medically supervised and rests on a phased plan.
As of:September 2026
The decisive point: the incapacity does not end
During the phased return the person remains unfit for work. They owe no work but take part in a measure serving the restoration of their capacity to work.
From that it follows that no remuneration is paid. Their livelihood comes from the health insurer's sick pay or the pension insurer's transitional allowance. Anyone paying pro rata salary instead risks the measure being treated as an employment relationship, with the benefit falling away.
Who has to agree
The treating doctor draws up the phased plan, the health insurer or the pension insurer approves it, the person concerned has to agree, and the employer has to consent.
There is no general duty on the employer to consent. For severely disabled people and those treated as equivalent, however, section 164(4) SGB IX can give rise to a claim to employment suited to the disability, which makes refusal harder.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
The relationship to integration management
The phased return is one possible measure within occupational integration management, but not the same thing. Integration management is the procedure for establishing what to do; the phased return is one of the answers it can produce.
Example: a phased plan over six weeks
- Weeks 1 and 2: three hours a day.
- Weeks 3 and 4: five hours a day.
- Weeks 5 and 6: six hours a day.
- After that, full working time. Until then: sick pay, no remuneration.
Common mistake
The hours of the phased return get recorded and paid as working time. That legally ends the incapacity, the sick pay falls away, and the person is worse off than before.
Further reading
- Section 74 SGB V, section 44 SGB IX
- Section 164(4) SGB IX, section 167(2) SGB IX
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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Related terms
Occupational integration management
Occupational integration management is a procedure by which employers, together with the person concerned, establish after prolonged incapacity how the incapacity can be overcome and the job preserved.
Incapacity for work
Incapacity for work exists where an ill person cannot perform the work they last performed, or can do so only at the risk of making things worse. What matters is the specific work, not the illness as such.
Continued pay
Continued pay is the continued payment of remuneration during illness-related incapacity for work and on statutory public holidays, without work being done.