What is Work Accident Compensation Case?
Work accident compensation case; It is a lawsuit for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages brought to him or his relatives by the responsible employer in case of injury or death of an employee working at the workplace of an employer.
Work accident compensation lawsuit can be filed against both the main employer and all subcontractors (subcontractors). For example, if X company subcontracted the electrical works of its construction to Y Company, and if Y company did some of the electrical works together with Z company; In the event that a worker of company Z dies as a result of a work accident, a lawsuit for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage can be filed against all companies (Z, Y and Z) due to work accident, provided that it is paid severally and jointly.
What are the Conditions Counted as Work Accidents?
According to the 13th article of the Social Security Law No. 5510, the situations that are considered as work accidents and which can be sued for compensation are as follows:
Any bodily or mental injury suffered by the worker while he is at the employer’s workplace is considered a work accident. It does not matter how the worker was injured or died. If the incident that the worker is exposed to has occurred in the workplace, it is considered as a work accident and can be subject to a compensation lawsuit. For example, if a heart attack occurs at work, it is considered by the Supreme Court as an occupational accident for this reason only.
Due to the fact that the employee working for an employer is sent to another place outside the workplace as an employee, the acts that the employee is exposed to during the times spent without performing his/her main job are work accidents and can be subject to a compensation lawsuit.
If the employee works independently on his own behalf and account due to the work being carried out by the employer, any incident that occurs due to the work he is carrying out can be subject to a compensation lawsuit as a work accident.
Accidents that a breastfeeding female worker is exposed to during the times allocated to give milk to her child in accordance with the labor legislation are work accidents. For example, an employee who is injured by a chair falling from the upper balcony while breastfeeding his child can file a lawsuit against the employer for work accident compensation.
Any accident that occurs during the worker’s journey to and from the place of work with a vehicle provided by the employer is an occupational accident. In practice, such accidents are called traffic accidents.
In practice, the most frequently asked question by the workers is how long the work accident compensation case will take. Many issues such as whether the work accident is fatal or injured, the nature of the work accident between the worker and the employer, the rate of fault of the parties in the realization of the work accident, the wage of the worker, whether the disability rate in work accidents with injuries can be objected to determine how long the work accident compensation case will take. An average compensation case in Turkey is concluded in at least 1.5 – 2 years.
Time to File a Work Accident Compensation Case (Timeout)
The period of filing a claim for compensation due to a work accident, in other words, the statute of limitations; 10 years from the date of the occupational accident (BK art.146). There is no difference in terms of general statute of limitations between injury (disability) or death as a result of a work accident.
In particular, it should be noted that if a criminal case has been brought due to an occupational accident and the “litigation statute of limitations” period of the criminal case is longer, the statute of limitations for the criminal case is also applied in the compensation case due to the work accident. For example, in the event of the death of two workers working in the construction industry, a criminal case will be filed for the crime of causing death by negligence. In the event of negligently causing the death of two people, the statute of limitations for the criminal case is 15 years. The 15-year statute of limitations in the criminal case will also be applied in the compensation case due to work accident. However, if two people are injured by falling from the construction site, since the crime will be a crime of negligence and the statute of limitations for the criminal case will be 8 years, in this case, the 10-year general statute of limitations will be taken into account, not the statute of limitations for the criminal case.
Another point to be considered in terms of the statute of limitations; In cases of disability (injury) as a result of a work accident, when the disability rate cannot be determined precisely, when the statute of limitations will start to run. In the event that the disability increases due to a “developing situation”, the statute of limitations begins to run from the date of the last report in which the disability was definitively determined.
Competent Court in Work Accidents Compensation Cases
The labor courts authorized to deal with work accidents are determined as follows (Law No. 7036 on Labor Courts Art.6):
In occupational accidents, the court of general jurisdiction is the court of the domicile of the defendant real or legal person on the date of the lawsuit. If there is more than one defendant, the court of residence of one of them is also authorized.
The labor court of the place where the work accident or damage occurred is also authorized to deal with the cases for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages arising from work accidents.
The labor court of the place of residence of the worker who has been disabled due to a work accident or, if death has occurred, of the plaintiff’s relatives, is also authorized.
Verbal authorization between the worker and the employer contrary to the above provisions.
The schemes are invalid.
Case of Detection of Work Accident
The occupational accident must be reported to the Social Security Institution by the employer. Upon the notification of the employer or the worker, SSI conducts an examination through the inspectors and prepares an investigation report that regulates whether the incident occurred is a work accident, the way the incident occurred, and the fault status of the parties. If the incident is described as a work accident in the examination report, the beneficiary may file a lawsuit for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages in the labor court.
If the occupational accident has been reported to the Social Security Institution (SGK), but the incident has not been accepted as a work accident by the SGK, a “work accident detection case” must be filed in which both SGK and the employer will be shown as defendants. The dispute regarding the determination of the work accident is directly related to the right of the Social Security Institution, and the institution is not a party in the compensation case. For this reason, the case of determination of work accident is seen as an independent case from the compensation case. The period of filing a lawsuit for the detection of work accident is subject to a 10-year statute of limitations from the date of the work accident. The work accident compensation case should wait for the finalization of the work accident determination case, which is filed as a separate lawsuit.
After the work accident determination case is finalized in favor of the worker, resulting in the determination of the work accident, SGK pays a regular income to the worker in case of disability and to the rightful relatives of the deceased in case of death. A certain part of the tied income is deducted from the amount of compensation claimed in the compensation case.
If an action for compensation has been filed without notifying the occupational accident agency (SGK), the plaintiff should be given time to report the work accident claim to the Social Security Institution by the labor court. If the incident is not accepted as a work accident by the Institution, this time it will affect the Social Security Institution and the area of rights, so the plaintiff should be given time to file a “detection case of work accident” in which the employer is a party. The outcome of this determination case to be opened should be awaited by the court hearing the compensation case, and a judgment should be made according to the result.