Can a corona infection be considered an accident at work? A court says no. The three plaintiffs could not clearly prove that the infection had actually taken place at work.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The complaints of three civil servants to have their corona infection recognized as an accident at work have failed before the Düsseldorf Administrative Court. The court dismissed the complaints of a primary school teacher from Hünxe, a senior teacher from Moers and a tax officer from Remscheid.
The women had contracted Covid-19 and wanted the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to recognize their infection as a work-related accident under the Civil Servants’ Pensions Act. The court emphasized that this was subject to special requirements that were not met by the three plaintiffs. The judgments are not yet final. They can be contested before the Higher Administrative Court of Münster.
According to the court, the women could not say exactly where and when they had contracted the corona virus, but what the law requires. In addition, the teachers and the tax officer could not prove that they were exposed to a particular risk in their work.
The court cited doctors and nurses in clinics as examples of activities with a particularly high risk of infection. Mere contact with other people is not enough. Contacts are “part of the general life risk,” the administrative court said.
The responsible Düsseldorf district government had also taken this view. She had rejected the applications of the three officers as too vague. According to the authority, the infections could have happened anywhere – it is possible that the three women were also infected in their private lives.
According to the plaintiffs, they are still suffering from the consequences today. The 53-year-old senior teacher is unable to work and was retired early in October 2021 due to long-Covid complaints.
The 56-year-old primary school teacher reported exhaustion, shortness of breath, temporary loss of smell and taste, and difficulty finding words. Her 53-year-old high school colleague spoke of concentration problems, constant exhaustion and body aches.
The three plaintiffs were convinced that they had been infected in the course of their work and that they had been exposed to a particularly high risk of infection there. The elementary school teacher claims to have been infected at a teachers’ conference, the high school teacher at two students and the tax officer at a staff council meeting. That was too vague for the administrative court.
