"Cheerfully strolling"

Party while on sick leave: employer must pay

Fit enough for a garden party despite sick leave? A court has now ruled in favor of an employee (symbolic image).

(Bild: ©karepa - stock.adobe.com)

A German employee was spotted at a garden party and "happily strolling around" in Leipzig city center - although she was actually officially on sick leave at the time. As a result, she lost her job: but now her employer has to pay her vacation compensation.

The labor law dispute began when the data entry clerk reported that she was ill with psychogenic exhaustion due to high stress levels, as reported by Der Spiegel.

Employer had doubts
However, the woman was then seen "happily strolling around" in Leipzig city center - but that was not all: her Facebook profile also showed that she had attended a garden party while on sick leave. The employer had enough, had doubts about her inability to work and released the woman so that she could "fulfill" her remaining vacation entitlement.

According to her employment contract, she was entitled to 25 vacation days per year. In June 2021, the woman fell ill and presented the employer with a doctor's sick note and later follow-up certificates. The incapacity to work lasted until mid-August 2021. At the end of June, the woman was given notice of termination at the end of July 2021.

Woman was unable to use up her leave
However, the data collector was still officially on sick leave, so she was unable to use up her remaining leave, she explained, and demanded compensation. Specifically, she was entitled to a total of 1403 euros in vacation compensation.

Now it was the turn of the Saxon State Labor Court in Chemnitz - and it ruled in favor of the woman. The strolling and the party could not shake the evidential value of the medical certificate, at least not in the case of her diagnosis, "Der Spiegel" quotes the ruling. The woman is therefore entitled to the vacation compensation.

Illness plays into the woman's hands
Although an employee's vacation entitlement can be fulfilled by taking time off, this is "only possible if there is an obligation to work during the period in question"; however, such an obligation to work did not exist due to the sick leave.

The explicit clinical picture also played a role in the decision: "In the context of such a clinical picture, visiting friends and acquaintances, even in the context of a celebration, is not suitable to justify doubts about the actual existence of the illness." The same applies to running errands in Leipzig city center.