Expensive mistakes: When do employees have to pay for damage caused?

Created: 01/17/2022 15:27

By: Andrea Stettner

Mistakes at work can be very expensive.

©Panthermedia/Imago

A mishap at work can happen quickly.

You can read here when employees are liable for damage caused and what upper limits apply.

Whether on the construction site, on the assembly line or in the office: a mistake can quickly result in costly damage - for example because a machine breaks down or legal regulations have not been complied with.

In the worst case, people can even be injured.

But who is then liable – the employer or the employee?

Also read:

Employee liability: Employees usually only have to pay a proportionate amount

Employers are usually well insured.

have to pay part of a mistake they are to blame for

.

It is important whether the negligence is so-called slight, medium or gross negligence.

From this, it is then determined what share the employer takes over and whether or how much the employee has to contribute. 

• Slight negligence:

  In this case, the employee can only be accused of minor fault from the outset. The lawyers at

  Hensche.de

  explain that this could be considered in the event of extreme excessive demands , for example "if the employee was put in a situation by an instruction from the employer that he was not up to from the outset based on his previous work experience." A liability of the employee is completely excluded.

• Medium negligence:

  If the required level of care is simply not taken and there are no indications of slight or gross negligence, this is usually referred to as medium negligence. Then the damage is often shared between employee and employer. In practice, the employer usually takes on the largest share of this, because many circumstances have a "mitigating" effect, such as the company hierarchy, the remuneration or the work done so far.

• Gross negligence:

  According to

  Hensche

  , this is always the case when you disregard very obvious rules of care that anyone would have followed in the given situation (e.g. driving a truck through a red traffic light).

  In the event of gross negligence, the employee must generally compensate for the entire damage.

Also interesting:

Individual cases decide whether employees have to accept liability

However, it is often not always clear from the outset whether slight or gross negligence is involved.

"You have

order to be able to judge fairly," explains Benjamin Stumpp, a legal expert at the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, to the

portal

For example, occupational safety and health in Germany is now so high that it is

.

"Forklift operators, for example, receive a lot of training, which is why accidents through no fault of their own are rare," the expert explains to the portal. 

But even in the case of gross negligence, there are definitely exceptions that rule out full liability, for example "if the

extreme, or even if the employer also contributed to the damage being so high ( for example because he did not take out insurance)”, it says on

Also read:

What if customers or colleagues get hurt?

The same rules apply if property damage occurs to third parties - such as customers or colleagues.

If the craftsman unintentionally falls a pair of pliers into the customer's washbasin, his employer takes over the damage.

"If, on the other hand, the employee was on a ladder without protective measures and falls over and destroys the sink, the employee will be held proportionately accountable by his employer," explains legal expert Stumpp in an interview with

.

Incidentally, employees are not liable

for

If the damage was not caused intentionally,

.

Even if the employee is not threatened with claims for damages, a mistake can also have consequences under labor law, such as a

.

Read here when employers are allowed to give notice of termination for reasons of conduct.