Procedure in case of illness

As of 09 November 2023

Reporting that you are ill

Staff who are ill are obliged to inform the University of their incapacity for work and its anticipated duration without delay.

Corresponding information must be communicated to the relevant line manager by 10 am at the latest. If an email containing such notification is sent to the line manager only, the line manager is to forward it to the krankmeldung@uni-due.de group mailbox immediately. If a member of staff reports sick by phone, the line manager is responsible for sending a notification of illness to the krankmeldung@uni-due.de group mailbox. It is not necessary to send the information separately to the responsible sick leave administrator; so this step can be left out.

Please facilitate a quick allocation of your email by specifying your organisational unit (division, faculty, central service or facility).

In case of a work-related accident, please also inform the Staff Unit for Occupational Safety & Health and Environmental Protection.

Example of an email notification of illness:

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Submitting a certificate of incapacity for work (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung; AU)

As a rule, all members of staff must see a doctor if they are unfit to work for longer than three calendar days. The University has the right to shorten this period down to one calendar day.

• Procedure for staff with statutory health insurance:

With effect from 1 January 2023, all employers have been included in the electronic system for processing medical certificates (eAUs).
Unfortunately, the University still does not have access to a system for retrieving eAUs from the statutory health insurance providers as a result of the cyberattack.
Therefore, we request that staff with statutory health insurance continue asking their doctor for paper-based certificates of incapacity for work (AU) to submit to their employer. This is possible upon the patient’s request. This certificate must not contain any information on your diagnosis. Alternatively, you can also submit the certificate that the doctor provides for you personally after obscuring the diagnosis key.

• Procedure for staff with private health insurance:

Nothing changes for staff with private health insurance (in particular civil servants) as they do not take part in the electronic system for processing medical certificates. They continue to have to prove their incapacity for work by presenting a doctor’s certificate. If they are unfit for work for more than three calendar days (this includes weekends and days off work), a doctor’s note confirming their incapacity for work must be submitted on the next working day at the latest.

The doctor’s certificate can be scanned and sent to the krankmeldung@uni-due.de group mailbox by email. Please specify the organisational unit (division, faculty, central service or facility) where you work in the subject line to ensure your email can be easily allocated. The original copy must be kept for six months and submitted upon request. It is not necessary to send the information separately to the responsible sick leave administrator; so this step can be left out.

If you would still like to submit the original copy of your certificate of incapacity for work, please send your letter directly to:
Dezernat Personal und Organisation
z. H. *name of the responsible sick leave administrator* (please find your contact here)
Universitätsstr. 2
45141 Essen

or:
Forsthausweg 2
47057 Duisburg

In addition, staff that fall ill must inform their line manager about the anticipated duration of their incapacity for work. This also applies for every extension of the incapacity for work.

 

Reporting fit to return to work

A notification that you are fit again to return to work is as important as the notification of illness as this is the only way to determine the exact period of your sick leave and thus to complete the process.

The procedure for reporting fit to return to work is the same as for reporting ill (informing your line manager and sending an email to the krankmeldung@uni-due.de group mailbox) and must be carried out on the day after your incapacity for work ends. Please also state your organisational unit (division, faculty, central service of facility) in the subject line of your email to allow faster allocation.

If you are off work on the relevant day (e.g. because you do not have a five-day work week or because it falls on a bank holiday/weekend), please report that you are fit again to return to work on your next working day at the latest. With such ‘late’ notifications of fitness for work, it is crucial that you indicate the exact date of your recovery.

If you go on leave immediately after being ill, you must report fit again to work before starting your leave by sending an email to krankmeldung@uni-due.de.

 Going home sick

If you start feeling unwell while you are working and can no longer fulfil your duties, it is sufficient to inform your line manager accordingly. A notification of illness as described above is not necessary. Consequently, you do not need to report fit again to work if you come back to work the next day. The day that was interrupted due to illness is considered a full day worked. If you participate in the flexible working hours system (GLAZ), do not clock out on that day. Instead, book a correction using the workflow (absence type: ‘Krank nach Hause’) or a working hour correction form on the following day. Your individual target hours for the day will then be booked.

The above does not apply in cases where it is the other way around (coming into work late because you were not feeling well in the morning).

 Falling ill during leave

If you fall ill while you are on leave, please also inform your line manager of your incapacity for work and its anticipated duration without delay.

Days where you were unfit for work as proven by a doctor’s certificate will not be counted as leave taken. Instead, you can take the relevant number of days’ leave at a later point in time. A certificate of incapacity for work must be presented in such cases. Otherwise, it is not possible to use the days of leave later on.