German for Holiday and Sick Leave (Urlaub und Krankmeldung) - Requesting, Reporting and Returning

Holiday and sickness are the two subjects on which a German employment relationship is tested most often, and both are governed by clear rules. Getting them right protects your job and your pay.

The vocabulary is small and formal, and it is used in writing as much as in speech. Learning it means you can book a holiday, report an illness and return to work without a single misunderstanding.

The Words of Holiday and Absence

German law gives a full-time employee at least twenty-four working days of holiday, and most collective agreements give thirty. The Urlaubsanspruch is calculated in days and is earned month by month, so a new employee has less in the first year.

Asking for Holiday

A German holiday request is made in writing and in good time, and the employer grants it unless business reasons prevent it. Naming your Vertretung in the request is the single most effective detail, because it answers the question the manager is about to ask.

Reporting Sickness

You must tell your employer on the first day of illness, before the shift begins, and state how long you expect to be away. The Attest is normally required from the third day, though an employer may ask for it earlier, and it goes to the insurer as well as to the company.

Sick Pay and Its Limits

For the first six weeks of the same illness the employer continues to pay the full wage, and afterwards the Krankenkasse pays Krankengeld at a lower rate. The four-week Wartezeit at the start of an employment matters, because the continued payment only applies once it is complete.

Returning to Work

A long illness is followed by a Gespraech, and in larger firms by a formal BEM, which offers a phased return with reduced hours. The scheme is voluntary, and refusing it has no disadvantage, but many employees use it to return gradually rather than all at once.

Holidays and Public Holidays

Public holidays are set by the federal state, so Bavaria has more than Berlin, and none of them reduces the Urlaubsanspruch. Some companies close entirely in August or at Christmas, and the days are then taken from the holiday account.

Documents and Proof

Every Urlaubsantrag and every Attest ends in the Personalakte, and the file is the record that settles a dispute months later. Keeping your own copy of each document is a habit that costs a minute and saves an argument.

The Holiday Year and Carry-Over

Holiday in Germany is counted in working days, not in calendar weeks, and a full-time employee on a five-day week is entitled to at least twenty working days a year under the Federal Holiday Act. Most collective agreements give thirty, and the extra days are exactly the ones you bargain over when you change employer.

The holiday year is the calendar year unless your contract says otherwise. Days you do not take can be carried into the next year, but the carry-over usually has to be used by 31 March, and after that the days can lapse if the employer warned you in writing in good time.

When you leave a job with holiday still unused, the remaining days are normally paid out with the final salary, and the employer has to show the payout on the final payslip so that it can be checked against the tax card.

If you fall ill during approved holiday, the days are not counted as leave. You must report sick as usual, and the holiday is credited back to your balance once you show the doctor's note.

The whole system is written down, so keep the request, the approval and the payslip together in one folder; that folder settles almost every dispute before it starts. If you want to handle holiday and sickness forms without hesitation, learn German with a course built around exactly this workplace vocabulary.

The bars show the order of the stages; each value is a sequence number rather than a duration.

Managing Leave in Germany

Holiday and sickness are the two areas where a small vocabulary carries real consequences, because both involve money and both leave a paper trail. The phrases are formal, short and always the same.

A German employer expects a written request and a timely phone call, and it treats both as a measure of reliability. If you want to learn German for work, the language of leave and absence is a small set of words that protects you every month.

German leave and sickness rules are strict, written and entirely learnable. Learn German with holiday, absence and return-to-work language built into the course.