A row has broken out in Germany after the coalition government announced changes to sick-leave rules, requiring Germans to provide a doctor’s note to their employers on the first day of their illness.

The changes also mean workers will not be able to obtain the note by phone, scrapping a measure brought in due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The number of sick days in Germany is too high,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Under the current rules, a certificate is only required if a person is unfit for work for more than three days – in other words, on the fourth day, although employers are entitled to request the sick note earlier.

The plans were agreed by Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and his coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD).

“This is a tough decision,” the chancellor said. “But we can no longer afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long periods of absence from work.”

Merz said the government would not accept what he called “exorbitant” levels of sick leave in the wake of the pandemic.

Germany was “returning to the arrangements we had before the coronavirus pandemic,” he told ARD TV on Thursday night.

“At the same time, it is up to individual businesses to agree on other arrangements as well.”

Medical groups have strongly criticised the plans.

The KBV, a national association representing statutory health insurance physicians, said that it “bordered on madness” to force thousands of people to visit doctors’ surgeries simply to fill in forms.

“Anyone who is coughing or has a gastrointestinal infection belongs in bed – not in an overcrowded surgery,” it said in a statement.

The Association of General Practitioners warned that infection cases – which would only have required one or two days in bed – would fill up doctors’ waiting rooms.

The leader of the SPD, Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, attempted to calm the situation, telling RTL TV he was looking for “workable solutions”.

“We now need to put sensible arrangements in place for what has been proposed in the coalition committee,” he said.

Labour Minister Bärbel Bas, also from the SPD, said she would investigate the requirement to provide a doctor’s certificate on the first day of illness.

“That wasn’t my proposal,” Bas told RTL.

“We will look into whether this actually has any effect at all, or whether it is more likely to cause difficulties.”

But Jens Spahn, leader of the CDU’s parliamentary group, defended the plans.

He said Germany’s rate of sick leave was among the steepest in the EU.

“We have one of the highest numbers of sick days – around 18 per year per employee,” he said.

“And those who are genuinely ill should, of course, be able to stay at home.”

The changes were agreed as part of sweeping tax, labour and pension reforms aimed at reviving Germany’s economy.