Should post-accident proceedings be carried out in an accident at a distance work?
The overwhelming number of accidents at work occurs in the workplace. However, this does not mean that an accident cannot occur in a workplace located outside the plant. Contrary to popular opinion, in no case is reporting an incident as part of remote work ineffective.
The fact of regulating remote work outside the sources of labor law cannot be an argument for not taking up post-accident proceedings in the case of remote work. It should be noted that the provisions on remote work, functioning so far outside the Labor Code, refer to the basic concepts of labor law. This means that a remote worker is not a second-class employee in terms of employee eligibility. If such a person suffers an accident and reports the event, then a post-accident team must be established and proceedings must be conducted – regardless of possible evidentiary difficulties, including the lack of witnesses to the event.
During the period of introducing the regulations on remote work and supplementing them, there were ideas under which the accidents of remote workers would be their private matter. Fortunately, the ideas are over. However, the emergence of such ideas in the media space may have given the impression that it is acceptable to refrain from post-accident activities in the case of remote workers.
In the discussion, there is another argument of opponents of undertaking post-accident proceedings in the case of people working remotely – the lack of dedicated legal regulations. It is about the lack of post-accident regulations in the current legal acts, which would clearly indicate the number of employees working at a distance.
Referring to the above arguments, it should be noted that the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 1 July 2009 on determining the circumstances and causes of accidents at work states that an „employee” who has suffered an accident, if his state of health allows it, should immediately inform his superior about the accident. The regulations do not mention an employee performing work on the premises of the workplace, which could suggest that they apply only to injured persons performing work in the plant. Thus, the lack of a dedicated regulation regulating the issues of accidents of teleworkers or remote employees in no way means that there is a basis for withdrawing from post-accident proceedings.
An accident can occur both on the premises of the workplace, as well as at the place of teleworking or remote work. In any case, the employer, after reporting the incident, should take post-accident actions, taking into account, of course, the specificity of the place of work.
Failure to take post-accident actions, in the case of remote work or teleworking, is a simple way for the injured party to prepare a complaint to the National Labor Inspectorate. It is worth knowing on this occasion that the latest PIP reporting data from 2020 refer to the issue of accidents of employees working remotely. There is not a single sentence there, as well as a shadow of doubt regarding the obligation to take up post-accident proceedings after reporting the incident by a distance worker.
If the employer decides to refrain from accepting the report and conducting post-accident proceedings and this is shown during the inspection of the PIP inspector, you must take into account the penalty. Such a situation may be qualified in the categories of an offense for which a penalty of PLN 1,000 to 30,000 may be imposed.
To sum up, the employer has no right to introduce company restrictions that would prohibit the reporting of accidents by employees working remotely. If the accident is reported, a post-accident team must be appointed and proceedings must be carried out. Of course, not every such event will be able to be qualified in terms of an accident at work. However, conducting the proceedings and preparing documentation will certainly minimize the occurrence of a dispute between the injured party and the employer. It will also help in the event of a dispute being transferred to external control and supervisory authorities.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.