What is a workplace injury?

Quick Overview

Work-Related Injuries at a Glance

• What is a work-related injury: damage to an employee’s health or death resulting from external factors beyond the employee’s control while performing work duties or in direct connection with them.
• It is not enough that the accident occurred at work: the connection to the performance of work duties is always assessed.
• Report the accident to your employer as soon as possible: the employer must investigate the circumstances of the case and record the accident.
• Compensation for a work-related injury may include lost wages, medical expenses, property damage, pain and suffering, and loss of social standing.
• The commute to and from work is generally not considered a workplace accident.

Is your employer refusing to recognize your injury or unwilling to pay you appropriate compensation? Describe your case to us. Our attorneys will assess whether the conditions for a work-related injury are met and what compensation you may be entitled to.

What Is a Work-Related Injury? Definition According to the Labor Code

According to the Labor Code, a work-related injury is an injury to an employee’s health or death that occurred independently of their will due to a short-term, sudden, and violent external influence while performing work duties or in direct connection with them. An injury sustained by an employee in the course of performing work duties is also considered a work-related injury.

Simply put: the definition of a work-related injury does not depend solely on where and when the accident occurred. The decisive factor is, above all, its connection to work. Therefore, for example, an employee’s fall while traveling to another department of the company may be considered a work-related injury, whereas an injury sustained during the regular commute from home to work is not a work-related injury.

We typically think of a workplace injury as an accident that occurred while performing some relatively dangerous work —for example, when a gas leak in a laboratory leads to an explosion that causes lacerations and eye injuries to employees, or when an electric shock occurs while installing electrical equipment.

A workplace injury can happen to any of us, even those of us with completely safe jobs, such as office work. This includes, for example, a sprained ankle sustained in a fall on the stairs while on the way to the payroll department.

For record-keeping and reporting purposes, workplace accidents in 2026 are classified as follows:

• fatal workplace accident —the employee dies as a result of the accident within one year at the latest,
• serious workplace accident —typically an accident requiring hospitalization for more than 5 consecutive calendar days or a life-threatening accident,
• work-related injury resulting in incapacity for work lasting more than 3 calendar days, which is neither serious nor fatal,
• other workplace accidents in which incapacity for work did not occur or did not exceed 3 calendar days.

The employer is required to maintain records of workplace accidents and to record each such case in the accident log.

Work-Related Accidents and Sick Leave

In the event of incapacity for work resulting from an accident, the employee is entitled to sick leave benefits. Workplace accidents and sick leave are closely related—the employer must provide compensation not only for lost wages but also for costs associated with medical treatment. When it comes to long-term incapacity for work, it is important to properly process the documentation, including the work-related injury report.

What should you do if an accident occurs at the workplace?

If you, as an employee, suffer an accident and your health permits, you must report it to your employer immediately. The same applies if an accident happens to one of your coworkers. However, the mere fact that you do not report the accident to your employer will not deprive you of any potential right to compensation.

Mr. Pavel fell at a construction site, twisted his leg in a hole, and landed on it. He didn’t pay much attention to the pain and didn’t report it to anyone. That night, his leg swelled up and began to hurt more, and the doctor diagnosed a torn knee ligament and issued him a sick leave certificate. Even though Mr. Pavel didn’t report anything, he can still consider his injury a work-related one.

From our legal practice, we know that problems often arise precisely with injuries that an employee does not report immediately. Reporting the injury later does not in itself preclude a claim, but proving the circumstances of the accident tends to be significantly more complicated over time—witnesses, surveillance footage, or precise documentation of the accident site may be missing. Therefore, we recommend reporting the injury to the employer as soon as possible and, if possible, documenting the circumstances of the accident.

Once an injury is reported, the employer will first investigate how it occurred and whether it is, in fact, a work-related injury. The mere fact that an injury occurred during working hours does not necessarily mean that it is a work-related injury. An investigation is always conducted to determine whether work duties were being performed and whether there is a connection between the performance of those duties and the accident. Employees are required to cooperate in the investigation of the circumstances of such an accident.

A now-legendary example of a workplace injury involved a construction worker who claimed compensation for an injury that occurred during his break, when he went to light a cigarette and sat down on an unsecured skylight near the roof.  From the employer’s perspective, this was not part of the employee’s work duties, and the employee had been sufficiently warned not to sit in that spot (the court even deemed the vulgar instruction “Damn it, don’t climb up on those skylights—you might fall” to be sufficient). Nevertheless, the courts ultimately ruled that when an employee briefly interrupts work—even if no break has been officially announced by the employer—to smoke a cigarette during working hours, this constitutes normal employee conduct that cannot relieve the employer of liability for any injury that occurs to the employee at that moment. The injury was therefore recognized as a work-related injury, and the only issue remaining was the degree of contributory negligence on the part of the employee, who had disregarded his employer’s warning.

Situations can be contentious when, for example, an employee collapses or has an epileptic seizure at the workplace and, as a result, sustains a head injury. The employer must investigate exactly what led to the collapse or seizure. If the cause was any form of increased exertion—which could also include stress, i.e., mental exertion—then the resulting injury is considered a work-related injury. This fact has been repeatedly confirmed by Czech courts.

If the employer concludes that it is a work-related injury, they must record it in the injury log. New rules regarding work-related injuries that must be recorded under the law will take effect in 2026. The employer must submit the record electronically to the relevant regional labor inspectorate or mining authority via the State Labor Inspection Office portal no later than 15 business days from the date on which the employer became aware of the work-related injury.

In the case of a serious or fatal workplace accident, the employer is also required to report the accident to the relevant authorities without undue delay.

Pain and Suffering Compensation—What Does It Mean and How Is It Determined?

Pain and suffering compensation is compensation for harm caused by injury to one’s health. It is determined using a point system, and the value of a single point may vary.

Pain compensation is determined based on a medical assessment that follows current pain evaluation guidelines. These guidelines include a detailed list of injuries and their corresponding point values. The number of points corresponds to the severity and extent of the injury. For example, if a work-related accident causes a severe spinal injury, it will have a higher point value than a minor contusion. The exact calculation of pain compensation is based on a medical assessment, with each point having a predetermined monetary value.

What about injuries that occur during a lunch break, on a business trip, or while traveling to see a doctor?

We occasionally receive inquiries regarding situations where an injury occurred de facto during working hours or shortly before or after them, but the employee was away from the workplace at the time. In such cases, we must distinguish exactly when the incident occurred.

• If you are still on your way to work or have already left the workplace after working hours, you are not performing work duties, and any injury you sustain is not considered a work-related injury.
• If you leave for lunch or to see a doctor, the same rule applies as in the previous point.
• If you’re going to a work meeting or on a business trip, the situation is different, as this constitutes the performance of work duties. If you suffer an injury at a meeting or while traveling to one, it is considered a work-related injury.
• Conversely, if you’re celebrating the birth of a colleague’s child in the office after work, knock over a table, and break your arm, it will not be considered a work-related injury, even though it happened at the workplace.

When assessing whether there was a direct connection to the performance of work duties, both the time and the circumstances of the incident are always taken into account.

What am I entitled to if I suffer a work-related injury?

Let’s first consider a situation where you suffered a work-related injury for which you are in no way at fault—that is, you were not under the influence of alcohol, and you did not violate any established procedures or regulations.

In such a case, your employer is obligated to compensate you for:

• property damage,
• reasonable expenses incurred in connection with medical treatment,
• loss of earnings,
• pain and suffering, and impairment of your ability to function in society.

Property damage —this refers to monetary compensation for damage caused to property. For example, this includes the destruction of your own car (used with the employer’s consent), the employer’s clothing, etc. Under certain circumstances, this may also include other expenses, such as the cost of hiring people to care for your household if the injury has prevented you from doing so.

Reasonably incurred medical expenses —this includes costs for medications, rehabilitation, caregivers, transportation to medical appointments, etc. Exceptions include costs covered by insurance and costs that are not reasonably incurred.

Loss of earnings —This refers to a reduction in earnings during sick leave following a work-related injury. The purpose of this compensation is to offset the employee’s loss of earningsfor the duration of their inability to work.

If the work-related injury results in a permanent inability to earn the employee’s original earnings, the employer must also compensate for such a loss. In such a case, the employee would be entitled to the difference between their average monthly gross earnings prior to the occurrence of the injury (determined by the employer) and the earnings achieved after the work-related injury or the diagnosed occupational disease, plus any disability pension

Pain and suffering and impairment of social functioning —this is a one-time compensation payment for harm caused by damage to health, paid on the basis of a medical assessment. It is usually determined once the employee’s health condition has stabilized. Theoretically, however, it may also be paid repeatedly if additional pain and suffering arises.

In the case of compensation for pain and suffering, the amount is determined based on a table in which a specific number of points is assigned to each type of injury. In the case of a work-related injury, compensation for pain and suffering is determined based on a medical assessment that follows currently valid methodologies (such as the Supreme Court’s methodology or the internal methodologies of insurance companies). The value of a single point is not fixed by law but is governed by these methodologies. This makes the system flexible and better reflects the severity of the actual injury.

Are you unsure whether your employer has included all the compensation to which you are entitled following a work-related injury? We will review the amount of your compensation and alert you to any additional claims you may have.

Exemption from the Employer’s Liability for a Work-Related Injury

The employer is fully exempt from liability if it proves that the damage resulted from:

• a violation of regulations or instructions regarding occupational safety and health by the injured employee, even though the employee had been properly informed of them,
• as a direct result of the employee beingintoxicated or under the influence of other addictive substances they had consumed.

However, the burden of proof in such cases rests with the employer.

Work-Related Injuries and the Employer’s Responsibilities

The employer is obligated not only to ensure a safe work environment but also to address the consequences of workplace accidents. The employer’s obligations include:

• Recording workplace accidents.
• Providing compensation to employees, including payment for pain and suffering.
• Reporting accidents to the relevant authorities.

Long-Term or Permanent Consequences of a Work-Related Injury

If, as a result of a work-related injury, an employee is no longer able to perform their job according to a medical evaluation, the employer is required to reassign them to a different position. If this is not possible, this constitutes one of the exceptional cases in which your employer may terminate your employment. In such a case, however, you are entitled to severance pay amounting to at least twelve times your average earnings.

Summary

According to the Labor Code, a work-related injury is damage to an employee’s health or death that occurred while performing work duties or in direct connection with them. The mere fact that the accident occurred at work or during working hours is not sufficient. The employee should report the accident to the employer as soon as possible, and the employer must investigate and document it. Compensation for a work-related accident may include compensation for lost wages, medical expenses, property damage, pain and suffering, and impairment of social functioning. In disputed cases, the specific circumstances and the connection between the injury and the performance of work duties are decisive.