- Date:
- 19 Oct 2010
In the assessment of incapacity for work, part-time employees must be treated in the same way as full-time employees if they did not have a limited capacity for work before the injury was sustained and if they are working part-time only as a temporary measure. So the Danish Supreme Court ruled in two precedent-setting cases.
Employees who are injured at work are entitled to compensation if their capacity for work is reduced by 15% or more. In situations where a part-time employee sustains an injury at work, however, two questions arise.
The first question is whether the starting point for assessing the degree of incapacity should be that the employee was actually capable of working full-time before sustaining the injury. The other question is whether the employee’s annual pay should be that of the part-time employment or the full-time equivalent.
Part-time employment was not important
On the first question, the Supreme Court noted that the fact that an employee is working part-time when sustaining an injury is not important so long as the employee did not have a limited capacity for full-time work before the injury. And the employee in question, the Supreme Court held, did not have a limited capacity for work before the injury. Accordingly, the assessment of the degree of incapacity in this case was to be based on the employee being capable of working full-time.
On the first question, the Supreme Court noted that the fact that an employee is working part-time when sustaining an injury is not important so long as the employee did not have a limited capacity for full-time work before the injury. And the employee in question, the Supreme Court held, did not have a limited capacity for work before the injury. Accordingly, the assessment of the degree of incapacity in this case was to be based on the employee being capable of working full-time.
On the second issue, the Supreme Court noted that if an employee is only working part-time as a temporary measure, the annual pay must be calculated on the basis of the full-time equivalent. The Supreme Court held that the employee in question was working part-time for family reasons that were temporary in nature. Accordingly, the employee's annual pay was to be determined on the basis of full-time employment.
Norrbom Vinding notes
- that the two cases show that, for part-time employees, the starting point when determining the degree of incapacity is that the employee is capable of working full-time at the time when the injury is sustained unless they had a limited capacity for work already before the injury; and
- that annual pay, which forms the basis of the compensation awarded to the employee, is calculated on the basis of a discretionary amount based on the pay that would have been received in the equivalent full-time job if it can be proved that the employee was only working part-time as a temporary measure.
