Workforce Support Team | Workforce Support Team |
SOP-DE-WFS CSAT Analysis - Workforce One | Number of Reviews: 1 |
Approvers: Luna | Date of Review: 23/07/2024 |
INTRODUCTION
Sick leaves have now been mostly automatised. However, WFS must still understand the basic premises of how to process a sick leave requests to handle the tool.
This SOP provides essential information for managing sick leave requests and addressing employee inquiries.
Guidelines & Policies
How does an employee call in sick?
Immediate Notification: Employees must inform their Hub Manager of their sickness on the first day of their sick leave, prior to their scheduled shift.
Recording Sick Days: Employees should record their sick days using the Workforce app, either through paper or electronic submission. This notification is crucial for planning and arranging a replacement.
Sick Note Submission: If the sick note is in paper form (Paper AU), employees must contact us and attach a valid sick note for verification and approval.
When should the employee upload their Paper sick note or request their Electronic sick note?
The employee must provide a doctor's sick note (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung) within 48 hours from the first day of sickness. This note should be sent to the Workforce Support Team, and the employee must record their sick days via Quinyx.
The sick note must be dated from the first day of sickness. If the employee is sick for an entire week, the sick note must cover from Monday to Saturday (6 days). We accept various types of sick notes from both public and private doctors, provided they include the necessary information to approve the absence:
Employee's name
Start date of absence
End date of absence
Doctor's signature
The most common sick notes received are the "yellow" ones from public health insurance. We accept sick notes labeled for “Arbeitgeber,” “versicherte,” and “Krankenkasse.” Only sick notes provided in person will be approved.
Please find an example of a valid sick note below:
A sick note will be rejected if it does not meet the following criteria:
The sick note must be granted by a doctor in person. Sick notes given via telephone or online are not accepted.
The sick note must contain all necessary information: employee's name, start date of absence, end date of absence, and doctor's signature.
If any of these requirements are not met, the sick note is considered invalid and will not be processed.
Find examples of an invalid sick note below:
Find examples of online sick notes we do not accept below:
Notes often indicate the doctor Haresh Kumar, sometimes with an address in Berlin or another city. The official page of the State Medical Association has confirmed that this doctor does not exist.
The employee is sick within their first 28 days:
Standard Employees: If an employee gets sick within the first 28 days of employment, they must send their sick note (Ausfertigung zur Vorlage bei der Krankenkasse) directly to their insurance provider, as the provider is responsible for paying the employee for those days.
Working Students and Mini Job Contracts: If an employee with a working student or mini job contract gets sick within the first 28 days, neither Flink nor their health insurance will pay for their sick days. These employees typically do not contribute to health insurance via payroll, as these roles are not considered main occupations. They should have another primary job where sick leave is compensated.
The employee is sick for longer than 42 days:
If the employee has been sick for over 6 weeks (<42 days), the Health Insurance Provider will issue compensation beyond the 42nd day.
Standard Employees: If an employee gets sick for longer than 42 days, they must send their sick note (Ausfertigung zur Vorlage bei der Krankenkasse) directly to their insurance provider, as they will be responsible for paying the employee.
Working Students and Mini Job Contracts: These employees typically do not contribute to health insurance via payroll, as these roles are not considered main occupations. They should have another primary job where sick leave is compensated.
Handling sick leave during a shift
If an employee falls ill during their shift and provides a sick note:
Partial Shift: If the employee has already punched in but leaves due to illness, Flink will pay for the full day. The sick leave for that day can be rejected, and the punch should be corrected to reflect the original shift.
Continuous Sickness: If the sickness continues, the following days must be accepted (with a valid sick note). The first day counts as a regular workday, and the sickness continues from the next day onwards.
⚠️ This does not apply if the employee is within their first 28 days of employment or has been sick for more than 6 weeks in the current year.
What do we do if the employee provides a foreign sick note?
During Approved Vacation: If an employee becomes ill during approved vacation days and provides a foreign sick note, it can be approved, provided the sick note meets the usual criteria.
Without Approved Vacation: If the employee provides a foreign sick note but does not have an approved vacation during this period, they are not eligible for compensation. According to their working contract with Flink, employees must inform their employer about absences in advance, including being outside Germany. This is done by requesting and having vacation days approved.
⚠️ If in doubt, please ask in the collab-payroll-rider-care Zendesk side conversation.
What if the employee sends us a sick note for their child?
You can approve a sick note for an employee's child, but ensure the following:
Surname Verification: Verify that the child's and the employee's (parent's) surnames match.
Address Verification: Ensure they share the same home address if the surnames do not match. If they have different addresses or surnames, kindly ask for proof of parenthood, such as a birth certificate.
A child sick note looks as follows;
A birth certificate looks as follows;
Handling Sick Leave for a Child
Eligibility: Sick leave for a child can be approved until the child is 12 years old.
Example: If a child is 11 years old and a parent takes sick leave to care for them, approve the leave.
Example: If a child is 13 years old and a parent takes sick leave to care for them, deny the leave.
What is eAU Sick Leave?
As of the 1st of January of 2023, we have implemented a new process for receiving sick notes digitally from insurance providers called eAU.
The employee can simply go to their doctor and the doctor will send the sick note to their health insurance. Flink will then receive the sick note from the insurance.
General policies and how to review edge cases. You can access the eAU Sheet here.
Important:
The employee must select the correct absence type Electronic sick leave (in the workforce app).
Enter the accurate dates for the sick leave.
Provide the correct insurance company and personal information.
By following these steps, we can automatically receive the sickness certificate and approve the absence request.
Do's and Dont's
DO's | Don't's |
Only approve the dates the internal note tells you to approve | Don’t approve the dates that the employee requested without checking the in the internal note in the ticket. |
When you have a follow-up request always check if there was a first sick note (Erstebescheinigung) | Don’t approve a follow-up sick note without checking Quinyx & Zendesk. And potentially the eAU sheet |
When we need to reject a sick leave according to the internal note, we always need to check if there is a legit paper sick note for those days. (if there is we can change to Approved Paper) | Never reject a sick leave without checking if there is a paper sick note for those days. |
How is sick leave calculated?
Starting April 1, 2023, Flink introduced a 5-day work week instead of 6, affecting how sick days are calculated.
5-Day Work Week: Employees can have a maximum of 5 sick days per week. For example, if an employee is on sick leave from Monday to Saturday, they will have 5 sick days (Monday through Friday).
Full-Time Example: A full-time employee working 40 hours per week will have 8 sick hours per day (40/5 = 8 hours). If the employee works Monday to Thursday and is sick on Friday and Saturday, they will be paid for 8 hours on Friday (the 5th working day) but not for Saturday (the 6th working day).
Flowchart
Tools
- Zendesk: Employee creates ticket and raises issue
- eAU SAP to Quinyx - SSC Tracker: Copy and paste the badge to check what tab the eAU is in.
- HR Tracker Sheet - Sickness corrections
Macros
Macro name | Description |
[SICKNESS APPROVAL] - eAU online sick notes | When eAU has been identified, confirmed and approved |
DE > EN > Sickness approval > Accident | When an employee informs of an accident leading to sick leave. |
[SICKNESS] Notification Received - eAU(electronic) | Asking the employee to wait in case of a request for an update on Sick Leave (electronic) request |
[SICKNESS] Approval (sick note after payroll cut-off) | When an employee's sick leave request is after the payroll cut- off. We let the employee know that the sick leave will be in next month's payment. |
[SICK ON HOLD] > EN > Health insurance update |
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Contact reasons
table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 220px;" border="1" Contact Reason Description Operations > Sickness > Notification
Employee wants to request sick leave Operations > Sickness > General Question Employee has general questions about the sickness policy Operations > Sickness > Payment Question Employee has questions about the sick pay. Operations > Sickness > Shift Question Employee has a question about the calculation of their shifts when on sick leave.
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