Employment law
Commuting accident
In order for you to determine whether this is a commuting accident, six conditions must be met:
- The accident must occur on the journey between the workplace and the employee’s main residence, or between the workplace and a place where a meal is taken;
- Characteristics of the journey: the journey must not be interrupted or diverted for reasons of personal interest unrelated to the essential needs of daily life or independent of the employee’s employment;
- The employee’s place of residence must be permanent;
- The place where meals are taken must be a regular venue;
- Apart from the regular ‘dropping off of children at school or a sick person before going to work’, the route must be the shortest, most convenient or most logical;
- The interruption must not be caused by personal interest.
Unlike in the case of accidents at work, it is up to the victim (the employee) to provide evidence of the accident, the injuries and the link between the accident and the injuries.
In our country, victims of commuting and workplace accidents receive the same treatment under the social security system.
In other countries, victims of commuting and workplace accidents receive the same treatment under the social security system, but when a commuting accident is recognised as a workplace accident, they do not always benefit from the same level of protection as that provided for under the sector’s collective agreement.
Furthermore, a victim of a commuting accident does not benefit from the specific protection afforded to victims of work-related accidents during their period of sick leave. However, absence due to a commuting accident must be treated in the same way as absence due to a work-related accident with regard to entitlement to paid leave.
Finally, where an employee’s physical incapacity results from a commuting accident, it is regarded as being of non-occupational origin.