LEGAL REGIME OF WORK RELATED INJURY AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE IN DOMESTIC AND COMPARATIVE LAW

Abstract

The scope of the term of work related injury or an occupational disease is of great importance, since the posibility of the establishment of special treatment exists in these cases - for the reason of differentiation of the contributions paid by the employer, as well as the provision of privileged treatment for the victims. Having that in mind, we emphasize the fact that this matter comes with a lot of questions. Does the engagement in a private activity during a business trip cut off the link between an injury and the professional activity? Is it possible for a health deterioration whose definite cause can not be known (such as heart attack) to be qualified as a work related injury? What is the most adequate system of characterization of a certain disease as an occupational one? These are some of the questions we tried to provide answers to in this paper, by usage of comparative approach. Therefore (exempli causa), we’ve mentioned a positive solution to the named problem of an injury that occured during a business trip made in Poland. On the other hand we’ve emphasized the faults of the lyst system, used for the qualification of certain diseases as occupational ones – which is used in domestic law, as well as in Poland, Greece and Slovenia, while presenting a different approach aplied in Belgium and Italy on the same matter. At the end, the final conclusion which was made is that the scope of these two terms, that are very much alive, depends on the changes on the labour market, as well as the state policy of the state in question.