If a person is telecommuting at home, goes to the bathroom and falls down the hall, from now on it would legally be considered an accident at work.
At least this has been considered
by the Social Court No. 1 of Cáceres
, which has agreed with an employee who suffered a fall in her home while teleworking.
"Going to the bathroom cannot be considered work interruption," highlights the sentence, which has not taken into account the claims of the mutual, which claimed that it was not an accident at work because the woman did not fall when she was sitting in front of the computer.
This worker carried out her work from her home as a result of the pandemic as a specialist telemarketer.
On March 8 of this year, around 1:45 p.m., he went to the bathroom of his home
during his working day
(established from 08:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.), and when leaving, to resume his homework, he tripped in the corridor and fell to the floor , so he suffered trauma to his elbow and right side.
The mutual claimed that since the accident had not occurred while she was sitting in front of the computer at her home, it was not possible to speak of a "workplace", and therefore she was not protected by the regulations.
The judge, on the other hand, points out that "
there has not been a clear interruption of the causal link
", and gives as an example of interruption the situation of who, during work time, being in the kitchen of his home, accidentally cut himself with a knife .
In this case, the sentence deepens, "nobody would question the opportunity to consider an accident at work suffered by an employee in the same circumstance if he worked in a factory, office or store."
In this sense, it indicates that "the obligatory visit to the bathroom to attend to a physiological need, constant in the performance of the working day, cannot undermine the legal presumption" and concludes "here it is not a question of making a better condition for those who telework, on the contrary ,
we seek to avoid their lack of protection
".
For the judge, on the occasion of the coronavirus pandemic "there has been an important development of teleworking, a circumstance that
forces us to reconsider or qualify some aspects consolidated in legislation and jurisprudence
."
And he points out that the actress "left the bathroom to continue with her workday" after "the obligatory visit to the toilet".
The sentence
is not
final and an appeal can be appealed against it before the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
Caceres
Coronavirus
Estremadura
Justice