As of: January 29, 2024, 12:18 p.m
By: Andreas Thieme
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Happy at work: This also includes a successful lunch break © imago images/Joseffson
Not every employee likes to go to the canteen at lunchtime, but also eats out sometimes.
Others prefer to go for a walk or even jog or go to the gym.
But are you actually insured if an accident occurs?
And what applies to going to the hairdresser or shopping?
A lawyer explains this.
Munich - Employees are legally insured against accidents if they carry out a business-related activity, i.e. during work and on the way to and from the workplace, explains lawyer Beate Metschkoll from Munich.
“The journey to the lunch break and back to work is also insured” - regardless of whether this route leads to the company canteen or to restaurants outside the company premises.
“The Federal Social Court justifies the accident insurance protection by saying that eating during the lunch break serves to recover and maintain the ability to work and therefore has the necessary close connection to work,” says the specialist lawyer for social law.
In principle, accident insurance coverage ends when you enter the canteen, restaurant or lounge.
Going for a walk during your lunch break?
What matters is whether this also serves the company
In the case of accidents during the lunch break, it depends on whether there is an internal or factual connection to the insured activity.
“The main criterion for this is the insured person’s tendency to act,” says Metschkoll.
The crucial question is whether he wanted to carry out an activity that served the employing company - or whether he acted predominantly in his own private interest.
“This distinction is often not easy.
This is why accidents at work during lunch breaks are often the subject of court decisions.”
Lunch itself is considered a private matter.
Insurance coverage also exists if the employee buys food at lunchtime - “but only if he eats it immediately,” points out Beate Metschkoll.
“However, if you do your private weekly shopping during your lunch break, this route is not insured.”
Lunch break: If an employee goes shopping, to the gym or to the hairdresser, he is not insured
Therefore, a walk during your lunch break is generally not insured - as is shopping, fitness and hairdressing.
“Insurance cover is only available as an exception if such a walk has become necessary for special operational reasons to maintain the workforce,” explains the Munich lawyer.
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In one case from the state capital, even jumping into the boss's pool during the lunch break was considered a restoration of ability to work, reports Metschkoll.
This was preceded by strenuous work on the company premises.
“In May 2023, the social court classified the employee’s injuries as an industrial accident.
Everyone present, including the boss, had taken part in the bath, so the accident victim was virtually unable to avoid the request.”