Sickness is kind of a red herring in the discussion. Everyone uses sick days as surprise vacations and that is more disruptive for railroads than, say, my desk job.
There are vacation days (guaranteed by law!). And then there is sick leave, and there is no fixed number of days.
They’re totally separate. If you’re sick, you’re sick - if you’re sick long term it’s covered by insurance. If you’re sick on holiday you even can get your vacation days back.
It’s so gross to me how this is handled in America. Certainly there are flaws in the Dutch approach, but it’s inhumane and precarious for so many people in America.
Makes me never want to return to life in the US.