Compensation for personal injurier of an employee

1. Compensation for personal injuries sustained by an employee has long been a controversial social and legal problem. Namely, social insurance benefits do not cover a full damage. Thus, the greater the difference between the damage and those benefits, the more significant from a social point of view the problem of obtaining a compensatory payment becomes. 2. The Act on Accident Benefits of 1975 introduced for an employee a more advantageous system of compensating personal injuries than the previous law. However, the present regulation is not free from shortcomings. There still remains an unsolved, yet basic problem of just compensation. The present system does not provide for a compensation of a full damage (in a civil law meaning) but of a damage defined in the Act. The maximum level of social insurance benefits, including benefits obtained form an employer, is limited by the Act. The source of compensation for the loss of income due to a complete on partial inability to work are— depending on its period and a character and degree of disturbance of health — sick benefits, salary differentials, rehabilitative payments, compensation allowances, compensation payments and disability pensions Furthermore, an injured person, or — in the case of his/her death — members of his/her family are entitled to a single indemnity, the level of which (maximum: 250 000 zl) depends on the percentage of a permanent or long-lasting detriment to the health. 3. Even though a compensation covers only a part of the damage, an employer — by virtue of the Act of 1975 — is not liable (civil law liability) for the damage resulting from labour accidents or occupational diseases. Similarly, if a person causing damage is an employee, he/she is also free from civil law liability. An injured person may thus obtain a compensatory payment only when a third party is a person liable for the damage. In turn, an employer is liable for a damage causally linked with employment, yet resulting from another occurence than occupational accident or disease. 4. A principle adopted in the present system: a sure yet not full allowance, does not correspond with social expectations. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the process of improving a system of compensation for personal injuries. An optimum model would be to depart from states of affairs determining rights to allowances (labour accidents, occupational diseases) and to adopt a rule that each damage which is in causal nexus with employment would give a right to allowances covering, in principle, a full damage. Before such a rule is introduced, an employer should be held liable for any non-compensated damage, especially if an employer or its subordinates could be held guilty of such a damage.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201