Home office: claim against the statutory accident insurance

The statutory accident insurance covers the “journey” to work in the home office. This was already the case before the new version of § 8 German Social Code Book VII [Sozialgesetzbuch VII - SGB VII], according to the Federal Social Court [Bundessozialgericht - BSG] yesterday (ruling of 8 December 2021 - docket No. B 2 U 4/21 R).

What happened?

In the case underlying the decision, the claimant was already working from his home office as an employed area sales manager in field service before the pandemic began.

One morning, after getting up the claimant went directly - as usual - from his bedroom to his home office one floor below to start work for the first time that day. He slipped on the spiral staircase connecting the rooms and fractured a thoracic vertebra.

The defendant accident insurance institution refused to pay benefits on the grounds of the accident, pointing out that insurance cover in a private home only commences when the employee has reached his home office, insofar as this concerned his starting work for the first time that day.

The claimant initially prevailed at first instance before the Social Court [Sozialgericht - SG] of Aachen, which assessed the fall on the stairs as an occupational accident and awarded the claimant benefits under the statutory accident insurance. At second instance, however, the Regional Social Court [Landessozialgericht - LSG] of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled on the appeal by the employers' liability insurance association that the first morning journey to the home office did not constitute a journey to work, but rather an uninsured preparatory act which merely preceded the actual insured activity.

The claimant was ultimately successful in his appeal on points of law to the BSG.

BSG: The journey to start work for the first time on a particular day is also insured as a journey to work

In its succinctly worded press release yesterday, the BSG reverted to previously developed principles, stating that a journey to work insured under § 8 (2) No. 1, SGB VII, old version, is also conceivable in the domestic sphere if the home and place of work are located in the same building. According to the binding findings of the LSG, the claimant took the stairs to the home office solely for the purpose of starting work for the first time that day and this was therefore insured as a journey to work in the interests of the employer.

Outlook

In view of the legal situation applicable prior to 18 June 2021, the recent decision of the BSG is controversial insofar as – according to the former legal situation - the journey to start work for the time on a particular day within one's own four walls was not covered by the statutory accident insurance.

The BSG now brings the old regulation in § 8 SGB VII into line with the new regulation in § 8 (1) sentence 3 SGB VII in order to take due account of the current pandemic situation.

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