Arbejdsgivers ansvar ved arbejdsskader under hjemmearbejde

Jensen, Frederik ; Rønning, Kristian Philip ; Nielsen, Signe-Liv Fuglsang Mølkjær Næsby

4. semester

Jura, Kandidat

2025

2025-05-12

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the assessment of the employers liability in cases of work-related injuries during telework. When an employee suffers an injury while working from home, commonly referred to as teleworking in the EU, the employer may be liable for the damages, if the injury is recognized as the result of a workplace accident. In Danish law, the assessment has its legal basis in “Arbejdsskadesikringsloven”, specifically in § 4 through § 6. The legal clarity regarding the assessment is evolving, as the Supreme Court of Denmark recently ruled in a case regarding an injury sustained while working from home. The court ruled in favor of the employee, thereby changing the established legal practices in the process. Until then, the administrative practice had been outlined by The Council of Appeal on Health and Safety at Work (“Ankestyrelsen”) and was centered around the differentiation between private affairs and work-related actions, where any private object or action could lead to a loss of protection for the employee. The thesis analyzes the established legal practices, known from the traditional workplace and the assessment according to § 5 of the “Arbejdsskadesikringsloven”, the requirements in “Arbejdsmiljøloven”, namely § 42, and how they apply to teleworking for Danish employees. The thesis intends to determine the key elements that the assessment consists of, to determine the liability of employers, in the event of an employees injury during telework. The thesis concludes that there are key differences in the application of § 5 of the “Arbejdsskadesikringsloven” when the employee works from home, primarily due to employer’s limited ability to dictate the workplace layout and to conduct inspections. This places greater responsibility on the employee, who is expected to assist and inform the employer regarding potential and actual issues with the layout. The assessment emphasizes several key elements: the employee’s actions and their relevance to the execution of the job; the employer’s influence on the situation; the necessity and natural correlation between injury and the job; and finally, whether the employee can be considered to be “at work” at the time of the injury.

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