Abstract
The concepts of work-related accidents and occupational diseases were established in French law over a century ago. Nevertheless, these legal categories are still difficult to define.
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Notes
- 1.
Mechanisation and automation require regular, repeated movements, in a working environment that is often noisy, lacking natural light, with variations in temperature, involving the inhalation of products and dust.
- 2.
Cuts, burns, machine explosions, metal shards, falls, etc.
- 3.
Indeed, an accident is usually defined as being an “unfortunate unexpected event”, an unforeseen, unanticipated event (Le petit Larousse 2003).
- 4.
Villermé L.-R., “Tableau de l’état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie”, 1840, books.google.fr/books?id=dZhRAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- 5.
Gérard J., “L’hygiène professionnelle en France au xix e siècle”, La Découverte, Coll. Le mouvement social, 2005/4, no 213, pp. 71–90, www.cairn.info/revue-le-mouvement-social-2005-4-page-71.htm.
- 6.
Thus the Appeal Courts refused to award accident compensateion to workers, ruling that the service contract, a precursor of the employment contract, was solely characterised by the exchange of wages for a service. No other obligation existed between the employer and the employee.
- 7.
Civ. C., Art. 1382: “Any action of a man who causes damage to others requires the person by whose fault it occurs to provide compensation”.
- 8.
Consequently, workers had to bear the heavy burden of proof and, in particular, demonstrate that the employer was in breach of contract. As this was incompatible with the very idea of an accident (there is often no fault), access to compensation became difficult.
- 9.
Although it was an embryonic version of the employer’s obligation of safety.
- 10.
Originally, the aim of this article was to set out the two exceptions to liability for fault stated by Articles 1385 (animals) and 1386 (buildings). In 1896, for the first time, the Court of Cassation interpreted Article 1384 para. 1 as having general application, while Articles 1385 and 1386 were merely illustrations.
- 11.
The first Chamber of Deputies debate on work-related accidents, in March 1883, followed the explosion of an ammunition factory in Mont Valérien.
- 12.
This kind of injury may occur, in particular, following the continued inhalation of toxic products or dust.
- 13.
Article L. 461-1 of the Social Security Code indeed states that: “Any disease listed in a table of occupational diseases and contracted under the conditions mentioned in this table is presumed to be of occupational origin”.
- 14.
Acute or chronic symptoms of poisoning.
- 15.
Microbial infections and injuries resulting from particular environments or positions.
- 16.
Civ. 2, 8 Oct. 2009, no 08-17.005, Bull. civ. II, no 243: “Whereas, to dismiss the application of the insured, the ruling states that if, as part of her activity of delivering bread, Mme Y … regularly had to handle the tailgate and the side door of the vehicle provided by her employer, the report established jointly by the latter and by the employee showed that these actions did not represent the largest part of her work posture which was, moreover, devoted to customer service and driving the vehicle, as well as loading and unloading it; By ruling in this way, in accordance with Table 57 A appended to Article R. 461 3 of the Social Security Code, that tendinopathy of the rotator cuff was presumed to be an occupational disease when the employee’s work habitually involved repeated or forced movements of the shoulder did not imply that this represented a preponderant part of the employer’s activity, the Court of Appeal was in breach of the aforementioned texts”.
- 17.
- 18.
It may be thought that suicide is characterised by a sudden event, but actually it is the result of suffering that has set in and developed over time. The suicidal act is sudden, but its cause occurs over time.
- 19.
Some tables include psychological symptoms in the description of the disease. For example, the table on “occupational carbon disulphide poisoning,” created on 17 June 1955, is characterised in particular by “acute psychological disorders with mental confusion”, “oneiric delirium”, “chronic psychological disorders with depressive states and morbid impulses” (table no 22), but the work likely to cause these is linked to the use of carbon and not to the work environment and behaviour.
- 20.
“This new list of occupational diseases reflects technical developments in identifying and recognising occupational diseases in today’s world. It clearly indicates where prevention and protection should take place. This ILO list represents the latest global consensus on diseases recognised at international level as being caused by work.” ILO List of Occupational Diseases, revised in 2010.
- 21.
“This is the very interpretation of the accident that, as physical injury is no longer a necessary condition, is just as well to be expanded as renewed” Jean-Pierre Chauchard, Droit de la sécurité sociale, LGDJ, Coll. Manuel, 6th ed., 2013, p. 388.
- 22.
Indeed, the Court of Cassation defined a work-related accident as a “physical injury resulting from the sudden and violent action of an external cause, while the victim was working in the workplace”, Joint Cass., 7 Apr. 1921, no S.1822.1.81—Soc. 20 March 1952, Bull Jur. UCANSS 52-45.
- 23.
Cass., plen. ass., 21 March 1969, no 66-11.181.
- 24.
Soc. 24 Apr. 1969, no 68-10.090.
- 25.
Soc. 2 Apr. 2003, no 00-21.769.
- 26.
Civ. 2, 1 July. 2003, no 02-30.576, Bull. civ. II, no 218: “But whereas the trial judges assess without appeal whether an accident has occurred as a result of or in the course of work; having noted that M. X … had been affected by a sudden nervous breakdown under such conditions, the Court of Appeal considered, without incurring the criticisms raised in the submission, that he had been a victim of a work-related accident”.
- 27.
Civ. 2, 24 May 2005, no 03-30.480, Bull. civ. II, no 132: “But whereas the Court of Appeal, assessing without appeal, the facts that had been submitted to it, considered, without modifying the terms of the dispute, that M. X … did not provide the proof that the interruption of work prescribed on 22 March 2000 was caused by a sudden change in his mental faculties, in relation to the events invoked”.
- 28.
Soc. 6 Jan. 1977, no 76-10.244; Soc. 20 Feb. 1980, no 79-10.593, Bull. civ. V, no 163; Soc. 17 Feb. 1988, no 86-10.447.
- 29.
Soc. 10 June 1987, no 85-16.868, Bull. civ. V, no 373.
- 30.
Soc. 11 March 2003 no 00-21.385, NP.
- 31.
“The sudden occurrence of a physical injury during work and in the workplace constituted an accident that was presumed to be imputable to work and this presumption could only be overturned in cases where it was established that the injury was due to a cause completely unconnected with work”, Soc. 21 Oct. 1965, no 64-12.124, Bull. civ. IV, no 690.
- 32.
See circular DRG, 1329-82 of 2 August 1982 (armed robberies)—Civ. 2, 1 Jul. 2003, no 02-30.576, Bull. civ. II, no 218: a sudden nervous breakdown related to a performance appraisal was recognised as a work-related accident—for an attack on an employee: Civ. 2 15 June 2004, no 02-31.194, Bull. civ. II, no 298.
- 33.
Joint Cass., 7 Apr. 1921, S. 1922, 1, 81, Sachet note.
- 34.
Soc. 28 June 1962, no 59-50.496.
- 35.
Soc. 8 June 1995, no 93-17.804, Bull. civ. V, no 191.
- 36.
Soc. 19 Jul. 2001, no 99-20.603, Bull. civ. V, no 285.
- 37.
Soc. 21 May 1986, no 84-17.111, Bull. civ. V, no 218.
- 38.
Civ. 2e, 22 Feb. 2007, no 05-13.771, Bull. civ. II, no 54—See also Lerouge L., “Work-related accident, employer’s duty of care and mental health”, note ss: Civ. 2, 22 Feb. 2007, no 05-13.771; LPA 6 Apr. 2007, no 70, p. 16.
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Bruère, A. (2017). Physical Effects of Psychosocial Risks: Opportunities and Limits of the Occupational Risks Compensation Legal Framework. In: Lerouge, L. (eds) Psychosocial Risks in Labour and Social Security Law. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63065-6_22
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