When accidents at work happens, the labor legislation determines a series of norms that the company must follow to guarantee the employee’s recovery and return to work.
Check out the topics covered in this article:
Table of Contents
What is a work-related accident
A work-related accident is any unintended event that leads to physical or mental injury of an employee and occurs in the course of work.
For instance, repetitive strain injuries or psychosomatic injuries, often caused by ongoing stress from work overload, are considered as accidents at work.
The law
The Brazilian law covering this subject is law 8213/91. Art. 19. Basically, it states what is a work accident and what are the company’s duties.
See below:
Art. 19
“Acidente do trabalho é o que ocorre pelo exercício do trabalho […], provocando lesão corporal ou perturbação funcional que cause a morte ou a perda ou redução, permanente ou temporária, da capacidade para o trabalho. “
A work-related accident is an unplanned incident or event that occurs in the course of work, causing physical or mental injury leading to death, permanent or temporary loss or reduction of worker’s capacity.
§1
“A empresa é responsável pela adoção e uso das medidas coletivas e individuais de proteção e segurança da saúde do trabalhador.”
The company is responsible for the adoption and use of collective and individual worker health protection and safety measures
§2
“Constitui contravenção penal, punível com multa, deixar a empresa de cumprir as normas de segurança e higiene do trabalho.“
Company failing to comply with safety and cleanliness norms at work are convicted of a misdemeanor and subject to fines.
§3
“É dever da empresa prestar informações pormenorizadas sobre os riscos da operação a executar e do produto a manipular“
The company must provide detailed information about the work risks and the possible effects of using hazardous subtance.
What are the types of work-related accidents?
According to the CLT, there are three main types of work-related accidents.
Common (Típico)
The common accident is one of the most frequent accident at work. Basically, it’s an accident that occurs at the workplace, in its surroundings, or during the employee’s working hours.
Usually, the most common causes for this accident are related to reasons and actions, such as: imprudence, negligence, or natural causes such as landslides and floods.
Not common (Atípico)
The not common accident occurs in very specific cases such as
- Acts of aggression or sabotage;
- Contamination during work;
- Accident during meal and rest periods.
Commuting accident (De trajeto )
Finally, the last type of work-related accident is the commuting accident.
As its name implies, it occurs during the professional’s commute from home to the company’s headquarters or vice versa, either in his own vehicle or in public transportation.
Occupational Injury and Occupational Disease
An occupational injury is any personal injury, disease or death resulting from an occupational accident. An occupational injury is therefore distinct from an occupational disease, which is a disease contracted as a result of an exposure over a period of time to risk factors arising from work activity.
Employers' obligations
Depending on the organization, employees are very likely to suffer work-related accidents. Therefore, companies must be prepared to comply with all obligations provided by law when these situations occur.
Provide Personal Protective Equipment
According to Regulatory Standard No. 6, an employee needs to use Personal Protective Equipment in some situation. It protects them from possible risks that can threaten their health and safety at work. Organizations must provide this equipment free of charge in three situations:
- Incomplete protection against the risks of occupational accidents or occupational diseases;
- Implementation of collective protection measures;
- Emergency situations.
Workplace Accident Communication.
First, the employer has to notify the Social Security organ no later than the following day. When notifying, the manager has to detail the accident that occured and name the employees who were injured.
If this communication is not made, the contractor will suffer severe fines from the Ministry of Labor (MTE), according to art. 286 and 336 of Decree No. 3048/1999.
Employee Rights
Finally, the third obligation of the companies is to grant all the rights to the injured employees.
These benefits are assured by the INSS, and can only be granted through the document generated by the Work Accident Communication, which will prove the professional’s inability to continue performing his activities.
To better understand these last processes, we detail each one of them in the following topics. Pay close attention, because failure to comply with them can lead to serious economic consequences for your business.
How to report an accident at work?
As we said above, the communication of the work accident must be sent to the Social Security within one working day of its occurrence, and in case of deaths, it must be done immediately.
The purpose of this document is to help the federal agencies to research and analyze statistics, as well as to enable the employee to receive his or her rights under the law.
It can be sent either by the company itself or by the employee or his legal representatives. This process can be done in two ways: online or in person.
In the first case, simply access the Social Security site, where the responsible party will have to fill out all the required fields.
What are the rights of the worker who suffers an accident at work?
In all, the labor laws establish that every professional injured in a work accident has five rights. These rights are:
- Job stability;
- Paid leave
- FGTS payment;
- Disability retirement;
- Pension for death.
Job Stability
This job stability is guaranteed until the employee can return to work. In other words, upon his return to work, his employment contract will be guaranteed for at least 12 months.
Paid Leave
Normally, the leave period for the employee to recover is 15 days. However, even if this time needs to be extended, the professional will not suffer any loss of pay.
The INSS will provide financial aid, also known as temporary incapacity aid, during the entire period needed for the professional to recover and to be able to return to work.
FGTS PAyment
Regardless of the time off work, every injured employee is also entitled to receive the Severance Premium Reserve Fund (FGTS).
Disability retirement
Some more serious work accidents can cause the employee to be unable to return to perform his or her normal duties. In these cases, he/she will be entitled to a disability retirement pension from the INSS.
Now, if the expertise confirms a diagnosis of partial disability, the employee can receive the so-called special retirement.
Pension for death
In cases of accidents that lead to the employee’s death, his/her dependents have the right to receive a pension for the loss.
These are the main rights that your company must guarantee to its employees who are injured. Besides following a legal determination, complying with them will help the employee recover so that he can return to work normally.
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