Does it really hurt? Behind-the-scenes investigation of employees on sick leave...a boom in the detective industry
Jan 13, 2025
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According to foreign media such as France 24, the private detective company 'Lentz Group' in Frankfurt, Germany, recently investigated the extramarital affairs of these companies and reported that sales were soaring.
Marcus Lentz, founder of the company "We get about 1,200 requests of this kind every year. This is about double what it was a few years ago."
He added: `When an employee takes up to 30, 40, sometimes 100 days of sick leave a year, at some point, the employer takes into account the economic benefits""I understand that if it is found to be a fake sick leave, it will be fired or terminated from the contract. "
He also said some of the employees who took long-term sick leave were on the side or doing other jobs.
For example, one person said he was helping his wife's business while she was on sick leave, while the other person also worked on his house.
Lentz noted that while hiring detectives can be expensive, companies will want to clean up highly unproductive workers at a time of heightened economic recession.
German workers took an average of 15.1 sick days in 2023, up from an average of 11.1 days in 2021, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
It is also estimated that such a high absenteeism rate would have reduced Germany's GDP by 0.8% in 2023, affecting an economic contraction of 0.3%.
According to data from the Organization for Economic Development (OECD), Germans missed an average of 6.8% of their working hours in 2023 due to illness, far higher than other EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain.
One of the reasons for the high rate of sick leave is that it has made it easier to approve sick leave after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Germany has introduced a system that allows employees with mild symptoms to get sick leave certificates by phone during the COVID pandemic.
This has led to widespread misuse, with some people complaining of fake coughs or symptoms during phone consultations with medical staff to take sick leave.
Stable payment of sick leave benefits also plays a role.
Employees on sick leave in Germany can receive full pay from their employers for up to six weeks per year. After this period, the health insurance agency pays the disease allowance.
As a result, some companies facing financial burdens are making requests to private detectives to address the inefficiency of sick leave employees.
Mr. Lentz said, `These requests from companies are on the rise"It appears to be a willingness not to put up with it anymore" he said.
However, the German labor community pointed out that companies are 'dangerous behavior'.
A labor institute said "It's an over-interpretation and cannot be a reason for dismissal" to see the actions of some workers as a whole," he stressed.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
