What can be included in the category of job-related injuries?

Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic dated 30 September 2014, Ref. No. 21 Cdo 2114/2013

It is important to note that even if an employee performed activities other than those that fall within the definition of his/her duties, it is possible for him/her to suffer a job-related injury for which the employer is held responsible (i.e. the employer is responsible for the damage that happens even without its fault).


Therefore, job-related injuries also include accidents suffered by employees when performing activities other than their duties if performed at the employer's command. Performance of one's duties also includes activities performed by the employee on the initiative of trade unions, employee councils, representatives for occupational safety and health, or other employees, as well as any activity performed on the employee's own initiative unless the employee needs a special authorisation or unless the activity is performed despite an explicit prohibition of the employer, assuming that it was an activity performed for the employer. To conclude whether such an activity constitutes performance of one's duties it is not important what motives or reasons the employee had (distant assumptions and ideas of the employee), but the fact of whether it was – with regard to the activity during which the accident occurred – an activity performed objectively for the employer in terms of its material (intrinsic, purposeful), local and temporal aspects.