Understanding Work-Related Injuries: A Detailed Analysis

Understanding Work-Related Injuries

A Work Injury is any physical injury that workers suffer in connection with, or resulting from, work performed for third parties. Therefore, there are three elements of a work-related accident:

1. Paid employment
2. Injury
3. Causal link between work and injury

The injury has traditionally been interpreted comprehensively as any physical or physiological impairment that affects functional development. This encompasses not only injuries caused by an external agent but also those due to internal causes.

This includes injuries resulting from certain diseases. Common diseases caused by work are known as occupational diseases, and pre-existing defects or diseases can be aggravated by an accident.

The requirement of a causal link between work and the injury has historically been relaxed by case law. The causal link can be established either directly (as a consequence) or indirectly (over time):

• Direct Causation: Refers to cases where the harmful consequences are immediately caused by work. Examples include falls, burns, etc.
• Indirect Causation: The work provides an opportunity for these lesions to occur.

A special case is the direct causal "Accident in Mission," which takes place during work-related travel. The accident may occur during working time or in the moments before or after, whenever the subject's behavior is reasonably related to the company's orders. This differs from an "in itinere" accident, which occurs when traveling from work to home and vice versa.

Indirect causation has historically been the most expansive force in defining a work-related accident.

Work-related accidents include those that occur "in itinere" (while the worker travels from home to the workplace or returns from work to home).

Also considered work-related accidents are those that occur during or as a consequence of tasks that, while different from their professional level, are performed by the worker to comply with the employer's orders or spontaneously in the interest of the smooth functioning of the company. This also includes rescue operations and other acts of a similar nature when they have a connection with work. Even tasks that are not strictly business-related but are connected, such as the representative character of a union, are considered. Certain diseases, occupational diseases, or defects and diseases suffered previously, aggravated by the injury, are also considered work-related accidents.

It is presumed, unless proven otherwise, that injuries suffered by the employee during the time and place of work constitute a work-related accident. Consequently, when the accident occurs within such time-space coordinates, the burden of proof shifts to those who deny its work-related character. The presumption cannot be rebutted by the fact that the worker has a history of the disease or was affected by risk factors.