German Court Rules That Moving From Bed To Home Office Counts As Commuting, Man Gets Worker’s Comp For Slipping Down The Stairs

People around the world have settled all too comfortably into virtual work routines — for example, by using their laptops in bed and joining Zoom calls while wearing pajama pants. However, one German court has excellent news for a man injured during his “commute” from the bedroom to the home office.

According to CNN Business:

A man who slipped down the stairs and broke his back while walking from his bed to home office can file a claim on his employer’s insurance after a court in Germany ruled that he was commuting at the time…

The man, an area sales manager working for a company identified only as “R-GmbH” was on his way to work “from his bedroom to his home office one floor below,” when he slipped and fractured a vertebra, according to a statement issued by the court on Wednesday.

His employer’s insurance initially refused to cover the claim.

But because he was walking down the stairs, for the first time that day straight to his home office, the court considered his journey to be “insured as an activity in the interest of his employer, as a commute to work.”

Killian O’Brien — a lecturer in German Law at University College London — told CNN Business that insurers should prepare for a deluge of new claims: “This is because there is an increased category of activities and events that you can carry out [within the home] that will now be covered, and it seems likely that insurers will therefore have to revisit this ruling often.”

The German economy, however, is poised to experience far more significant disruptions than absurd workers’ compensation cases.

As Olaf Scholz replaces longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel and indicates a willingness to take hardline measures against the spread of COVID-19, analysts warn that Germany is entering a recession. According to the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, the German economy will shrink by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021 in comparison with the third, before stagnating in the first quarter of 2022. The group also foresees a 3.3% rise in consumer prices — well above the European Central Bank’s 2% target.

Germany — which has one of the lowest inoculation rates in Europe — is preparing to inflict high degrees of pressure on its unvaccinated population. German Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn recently warned that “by the end of this winter everyone in Germany will either be vaccinated, recovered or dead.”

Merkel and state governors in Germany announced — and later retracted — a five-day lockdown over the Easter holiday.

“The idea of an Easter shutdown was drawn up with the best intentions, because we must urgently manage to slow and reverse the third wave of the pandemic,” Merkel explained. “However, the idea … was a mistake — there were good reasons for it but it could not be implemented well enough in this short time.”

Europeans living under various COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates are reacting in the form of massive protests. Tens of thousands of people routinely march in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, and other such nations.

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