Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Ignoring the silly home ruling, does that mean a German employer is responsible for the safety of employees on their commute to work.
That seems a very onerous responsibility.
That's not quite it; the argument is between the employee and the insurance, not the employer. We have mandatory health insurance here, but when you are at work, you are covered by a more comprehensive insurance from your employer; each industry sector has an insurer. The difference is summed up as the mandatory health insurance is like the UK's National Insurance: it has a fixed budget. The "work" insurance is a bit like having private insurance, and like private insurance they'll try and get out of paying if they can.
The "work" insurance also covers commuting from the front door to work, but only for the basic journey. For example, if I ride from home to work and stop off to go shopping, or make a detour, my work insurance isn't valid for that part of the journey, so any accidents are covered by the mandatory insurance.
The claim from the work insurance in this case was that in the same way someone going from bed to desk on the first journey is covered but if they then go back upstairs it's a private journey and should be covered by the basic insurance.