Quote:
Originally Posted by Blossom
Not Sick Leave. Vacation days. There is no Sick Leave, you either take a point or use a Vacation day. The factory is part of the Steelworkers Union and hubby is a member. You can try to use the Family emergency medical act if it's falls under those guidelines but other then that if you have no Vacation days you have to take a point.
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Holy $DEITY!
That is incredible.
Here, in Europe it is VERY different. Now I am starting to understand why things cost as many Euros here as Dollars out there.
Here, nobody limits your sick days. You are sick/ill/need to visit doctor (even dentist), you just get paper from the doctor that you are sick/ill for certain number of days and you bring the paper to work. That is it. You get limited pay (some percentage from your average wage) for your "sick" days. It comes from special tax we pay to state.
I get 25 vacation days per year. Yep. Entire five weeks. Some 10 years ago I took one month vacation. Went by bus from Central Europe to Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, Rhodos, Greece, Italy ... . 10 thousand kilometres. Organised by a specialised travel agency.
And they have even more liberal laws and rules in Germany!
When you get really ill, or have a severe accident, and you are several months in hospital, and later at home, they CAN NOT fire you while you are ill. The same if you get pregnant. You get 6 month paid maternity leave and another 2.5 years of parental leave (for those 2.5 years even father can take care of child, if mother has better job and they decide to switch, but that is very rare) and you get paid some money. And they have to keep your place - they aren't allowed to sack you. From the age of three children go to Kindergarten. Vast majority of population can afford Kindergarten for their kids if they wish to start working.
Employer has to provide you with 30 minutes for lunch and you get vouchers for lunch in cafeteria (you pay fraction of cost) or some equivalent (like vouchers usable in restaurants in town). Lunch in cafeteria is: warm soup, main course (warm, cooked meal, usually meat) and perhaps a dessert (usually paid extra). All of that decent quality.
Nobody has to worry about medical bills here. You get sick, you go to doctor. You get all necessary generic medicals for a symbolic fee. Insurance company will pay. You only pay for fancy tooth fillings (ceramic ones, amalgam (silver mixed with mercury) is paid by insurance, you only pay symbolic fee, like 3 euros), fancy dentistry work, cosmetic surgery, or if you want to have private room in hospital.
As I said, very different here ...