It's not a set number for the US either, we have Family Medical Leave (FMLA). When they say you have sick days it's referring to paid sick leave by your job. If you're sick you can be out for sick leave for quite a long time and the jobs can't do anything against you, they just don't have to pay you. If you're so sick that you're on FMLA for a long time you'll probably qualify for Short Term Disability which you might also supplement with Short Term disability insurance.

I'm talking by experience. I've seen people abuse the benefits that the companies give. When the companies find out, they feel betrayed and start restricting those benefits for everyone.

I'm just saying that greed isn't the only reason behind these issues. That workers also have the responsibility to be respectful towards companies, which isn't always the case.

Both sides need to be better. Companies even more than workers obviously, but workers ain't saints either.

Plus, I don't think that losing your job because you have a serious illness should be acceptable or the mechanism to ensure people aren't abusing their benefits. Getting a fake doctor's note is not that difficult.

I'm sure companies would be more open to these changes if those few cases of bad apples didn't exist. But they exist, so companies are like "ok, if treating you like shit is the only way you won't abuse the benefits, we'll go down this path then". And yeha, it's just a couple of workers who fuck it up for everyone else.