Danish court case regarding injury at home office

The case concerned an employee who, on 8 December 2020, worked from her home workplace. During the case, it was undisputed that the employee was required to work from home by the employer and that the employer had not provided any instructions on the design of the home workplace.

During the working hours, the employee went to her kitchen to brew a cup of coffee. On her way back to the work desk, the employee tripped over a box placed in the kitchen and sustained several injuries, including a fractured shoulder. The box was a purely private object that had no connection to the work. The employer had no knowledge of or influence on the location of the box.

The question in the case was whether the fall could be considered an occupational injury under the Workers' Compensation Act, even though the employee had fallen over a private object that had no connection to the work.

Pursuant to section 5(1) of the Danish Workers' Compensation Act, an occupational injury occurs if an accident is caused by the work or the conditions under which it takes place. An "accident" means a personal injury caused by an incident or an impact that occurs suddenly or within five days.

It was undisputed that the coffee brewing had a natural connection to the work and that it could therefore, in isolation, be attributed to the conditions under which the work had taken place.

The Supreme Court stated that the starting point for an accident that occurs in the course of an individual's work is that the accident is considered an occupational injury and that this starting point also applies when working from home.

The Supreme Court further stated that the employee was in the process of performing her work when she fell and sustained the injuries.

The remaining question was whether the fact that the employee fell over a private object in her home provided grounds for deviating from this main principle.

The Supreme Court noted that the employer is responsible for ensuring a safe working environment, and that this responsibility also applies when the work is performed at a home workplace. The Supreme Court further noted that the employer - as part of the objective responsibility under the Danish Workers' Compensation Act - must bear the risk of injuries that occur as a result of an employee, while performing work from a home workplace, falling over their own objects that are part of the home's furnishings.

Consequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the employee's accident at the home workplace constituted an occupational injury. In doing so, the Supreme Court upheld the prior decision of the Danish High Court, which had reached the opposite conclusion of the District Court, the first instance in the case.

The ruling emphasizes that an accident that occurs at a home workplace as a result of the work or the conditions under which the work takes place will generally be considered an occupational injury covered by the Danish Workers' Compensation Act.

The ruling relates to the objective (mandatorily insured) liability. We note that statutory worker's compensation insurance only covers limited items of compensation, and that an employer may thus, under the circumstances, be faced with direct additional claims for compensation if an injured employee asserts that the employer has acted (or failed to act sufficiently) in a manner that incurs direct liability.

Therefore, Schjødt recommends that all employers in Denmark, whose employees work from home either full-time or part-time, including outside normal working hours, develop clear guidelines with instructions on how employees must set up their home workspaces to prevent accidents from occurring.