articles - Labour and employment law

Employees sometimes report accidents on their way to work. This generally results in an employee’s lateness to or absence from work being deemed excused. Employers are often unaware, however, that such notification carries additional obligations. Failures in this respect create the risk of the employee litigating with the employer to establish that such an event was an accident on the way to work. What should an employer do to protect themselves from such a risk?

At one time, a French court's ruling concerning an employee who died from a heart attack after having casual sex [during a business trip] aroused great interest in the Polish press. The controversy concerned the court's recognition of this incident as an accident at work, due to the fact that it took place during the employee's business trip. The court held that an employee is protected throughout the entire duration of a business trip, also when carrying out normal human activities, which include having sex, as well as taking a shower or eating a meal. Could a similar judgment be passed in...

In order for an incident to be considered an accident at work, it is necessary to establish its connection with work. In this respect, no serious doubt is raised with respect to an accident suffered by an employee in the performance of his or her duties. However, in some cases, the accident report refers to an accident that occurred in circumstances not directly related to the employee's performance of his or her work, for example during a staff social event. To properly classify such accident, it is necessary to determine whether the event was work-related.

Based on internal regulations or the provisions of the so-called anti-crisis shield, many employers have decided to instruct employees to perform remote work. Until now, employers have rarely used this form of work, so this is a serious challenge for them. This concerns not only organising remote work, but also providing employees with safe conditions for performing it in their place of residence. One of the difficulties that employers should take into account is the possibility of work-related accidents.

A variety of circumstances may cause a workplace accident. It is important to properly determine the cause of an accident, because only an event that had an external cause may be deemed a work accident. An external cause of an accident has a very broad definition. It may be the operation of a workplace machine or tool, or the behaviour of another person, or of the injured person himself. A workplace accident may even be caused by the employee tripping, or his unfortunate reflex action that led to a fall and the injury.

An accident at work has far-reaching consequences for an employer. An accident procedure must be initiated in which the accident investigation team examines the circumstances and causes of the accident, then includes their findings in an accident report. The labour inspector and public prosecutor must also be informed of any fatal, serious or collective accident. The labour inspector may initiate an inspection at the workplace and the public prosecutor may initiate criminal proceedings to investigate the accident.