German Employers Face Twin Summer Headaches: Heat Protection Triggers as Sick-Note Rules Tighten

The federal government is now pushing back with a two-pronged strategy — stricter workplace temperature rules and a looming overhaul of sick-note requirements that has doctors and insurers worried.

Drugs plus heat: a quiet danger

A less visible threat is gaining attention from occupational safety experts. The Robert Koch Institute warns that many common medications change how they work when temperatures rise. Blood pressure drugs, diuretics, diabetes treatments, anticonvulsants, and certain painkillers — both NSAIDs and opioids — can raise the risk of circulatory collapse, dehydration, and kidney damage. Under new guidance, employers will have to factor these interactions into their routine hazard assessments.

Keeping your workplace risk assessment up to date with heat?related medication interactions is now a growing compliance priority. A free toolkit provides 41 ready?to?use templates and checklists to help you document these hazards quickly and in line with regulatory expectations. Download the free Risk Assessment Toolkit

Temperature thresholds tighten

Germany’s Workplace Ordinance already draws clear lines. Once a room hits 26°C, employers must take initial protective steps. At 30°C, effective countermeasures become mandatory. And when the thermometer crosses 35°C, rooms can no longer be used without special gear such as air showers or heat-protective clothing.

The left-wing Linke party has gone a step further, demanding a climate-based short-time work allowance. The idea: shield companies financially during extreme weather, signaling that heat protection should be a higher national priority.

Sick-note rules shift — and spark pushback

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition is planning a major change. Starting 2 July 2026, employees will have to present a doctor’s note on the very first day of illness. The long-standing practice of phoning in a sick note — already controversial — is also on the chopping block.

Health insurers DAK and AOK have warned the move will overwhelm GP practices. Waiting rooms could become crowded with people seeking quick certificates, raising infection risks. Hitzebedingte Erschöpfung, or heat exhaustion, would be handled differently under the new regime — likely requiring a doctor’s visit rather than a phone call.

UV rules: Europe well ahead, America catching up

While heatstroke is the acute danger, ultraviolet radiation poses a long-term cancer risk. The skin cancer centre at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) in Kiel treats roughly 3,700 patients annually and records more than 300 new melanoma cases each year. Professor Kähler, the centre’s director, stresses that clothing offers the best protection.

Protecting your workforce from heat stress, UV exposure, and other workplace hazards is a legal duty under UK health and safety law. Over 37,000 British businesses already use a free Health & Safety Toolkit with risk assessments, checklists, and toolbox talks to stay compliant. Download the free Health & Safety Toolkit

On the sunscreen front, the United States is finally closing a regulatory gap. The FDA plans to approve bemotrizinol in August 2026 — a UV filter that has been standard in Europe for 25 years. The delay stems from a classification quirk: in the US, sunscreens are regulated as drugs; in the EU they are treated as cosmetics. The SAFE Sunscreen Act, passed in 2025, is now speeding up approvals for modern filters.

en | boerse | 69697948 |