30.05.2022

THE EMPLOYER IS SPECIALLY RESPONSIBLE IN CASE OF ACCIDENT

What is the procedure if damage to health occurs at work? Is there any compensation from the employer?

The Labor Code (LC) provides for special property liability of the employer in case of damage to the health of the employee, as well as in case of death. "For damages from an accident at work or occupational disease which have caused temporary incapacity for work, permanently reduced working capacity of 50 and over 50 per cent or death of the employee, the employer shall be liable regardless of whether his body or another employee has guilt for their occurrence", specified in the provision of art. 200 of the LC.

Injuries must be caused by an accident at work - such as an injury while working with a machine or by an occupational disease - such as the lungs from working in a mine.

The Code stipulates that the employer is liable even when the accident at work is caused by force majeure during or in connection with the performance of the assigned work. Liability is also involved in work performed without an order, but in the interest of the employer, as well as during a vacation spent in the company.

Otherwise, the employer owes compensation for the difference between the damage caused - non-pecuniary and pecuniary, including the lost benefit, and the compensation and/or the social security pension. Everything that is like a difference is paid by the employer. And this difference is often very large - including treatment, medication, suffering, missed pay, etc.

The due compensation is reduced by the amount of the amounts received under the concluded insurance contracts for the employees.

The Labor Code also stipulates that the receipt of the benefit in question by the heirs of a deceased person due to an accident at work or an occupational disease is not considered to be an inheritance. It is due to them outside the hereditary mass.

The law excludes the liability of the employer if it turns out and proves that the injured employee has caused the damage intentionally. This liability is only reduced if the victim has contributed to the accident by gross negligence. The employer has the right to the so-called recourse action against the guilty workers - to seek through the court from them what he paid to the victim.

Under the Labor Code, the employer is obliged to provide the employee with normal conditions for the performance of the work under the employment contract for which he has agreed. This certainly includes healthy and safe working conditions. He is obliged to give instructions on the order and manner of performance of labor duties and exercise of labor rights, including acquaintance with the rules of internal labor order and the rules of health and safety at work.

There are also special rules for night work related to safe working conditions and non-compliance with them also entails liability. In these cases, employees are hired only after a preliminary medical examination, which is at the expense of the employer. They are subject to periodic medical examinations.

When a health authority finds that the health of an employee has deteriorated due to night work, it is transferred to a suitable day job or employed. The employer with whom the employees work night work is obliged to provide information on their number, the hours worked at night, as well as on the measures taken to ensure safe and healthy working conditions at the request of the Executive Agency "General Labor Inspectorate".