INJURY: INAIL RIGHT TO OBTAIN COMPENSATION

I’m a factory worker and I suffered an injury that was “my own fault” during my working activities.  Do I have the right to receive INAIL compensation?  

Workers suffering injury might not always be granted compensation by the Italian insurance Institute for work accidents (INAIL).

It is essential in cases of worker’s injury due to fault to remember that insurance cover is not necessarily lost if the accident was the worker’s own fault, provided that the injury can be ascribed to the working activity as a direct consequence, even if the blame can be ascribed to a “fault” committed by the worker.

In jurisprudence, orientatively, in order to safeguard the worker, committing a fault is considered irrelevant for the purposes of granting an indemnity.  We can therefore state, also in the light of the most recent judgements filed by the Supreme Court (“Corte di Cassazione”), that the worker’s fault does not in itself prevent the INAIL from granting compensation in cases of accidents at work (Cass. Civ. no. 17917/2017).

The reasons for this orientation are to be identified also in the Italian Constitution, that recognizes health as a fundamental right of every individual and of the collectivity, so that workers have the right to have adequate means at their disposal to guarantee their needs during disability if they have suffered injury.  This comes under the heading of “social security” to protect workers even if the accident happened due to the worker’s own fault, in order to guarantee the coverage also of the new needs that will arise as a consequence of the accident.

In any case, a legal assessment will be made to decide whether the accident and the injury occurred due to inadvertent fault, or deliberate commission of an action, or else to an elective risk during the working activity.

The term inadvertent fault includes an accident caused by the worker’s imprudence, negligence or incompetence.

Deliberate commission means that when the accident and consequent injury happened it was due to an action committed or omitted by the worker and was therefore predictable and occurred as a consequence of the worker’s own action or omission.

Finally, an elective risk refers to voluntary actions taken by the worker that are not strictly included among the working activities and can therefore be defined as  “voluntary and arbitrary”.

For the above reasons, a careful analysis of the worker’s behaviour is always made, that will lead to different conclusions: inadvertent fault does not exclude insurance cover whereas deliberate commission and elective risk will result in compensation denial.

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