In Germany, courts are now considering walking from your bed to your desk as commuting.
One man is being allowed to claim the equivalent of worker’s compensation after he fell down his apartment steps while working from home.
The Guardian, says that the man slid and cracked a thoracic vertebrae while descending his spiral staircase from his bedroom to his computer.
His insurance, however, denied his claim that it was a workplace accident, forcing the rare case to go to court.
In social court, lawmakers agreed that his initial morning commute from his bed to home office was an insured work commute even though the regional social court saw it as a “uninsured preparation act that just precedes the actual activity.”
As a result, the case was referred to the Federal Social Court.
The court noted in its decision that the man usually began work “immediately without having breakfast beforehand,” and that statutory accident insurance only covered the “first” journey to work, implying that if he arrived at his desk unharmed, but then fell en route to the kitchen, then he may not have been covered.
In his appeal, the man argued that “not least in view of the current pandemic, many people worked from home. With regard to the protection provided by the statutory accident insurance, these should not be worse off than the employees in the company.”
“The way to start working in the home office in the private apartment must therefore be an insured company route.”
The Federal court agreed.
“The plaintiff suffered an accident at work when he fell on the way to his home office in the morning,” it said in its decision. “According to the binding findings of the lower instance, walking the stairs to the home office was only used to start work for the first time and is therefore insured as a service in the interests of the employer.”
