A German court has ruled that sustaining an injury while walking your bedroom to your home office constitutes a workplace accident. The judges decided that walking a few metres your bed to your desk another room your house can be considered a commute to work. As such, any injuries sustained that short journey can be eligible compensation payouts. The landmark ruling was made in a case where a man slipped while descending a staircase his bedroom his home office and fractured a vertebra. The court decided that the "first morning journey bed to the home office is an insured work route". This decision could start a rush to get similar cases heard courts.
The notion what constitutes a workplace has changed the beginning the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people have switched working in offices to working home. This has implications for health and safety issues as well as the legalities workplace accidents. One big question concerns who is responsible ensuring a home office satisfies safety requirements, and to what extent an employer is liable injuries sustained an employee's home. An expert German employment law said new legislation would be needed to decide future claims. He told the CNN news agency that: "It seems likely that insurers will...have to revisit this ruling often."
