Colombia Update: Work Accidents and Employer Liability

Identify possible risks and implement mitigation actions to avoid work accidents.

It is inevitable to think what will be the responsibility of the company I represent as soon as an accident of a company worker happens. In the daily dynamics of any company, where there are all the controls to mitigate risks, it can happen that one of the workers suffers an accident at work.

In a circumstance like these, without a doubt, the first thing will be to provide the worker with the necessary support for their recovery. However, in the interests of the company, it is important to understand that, in the event of an accident at work, there is strict liability and subjective liability.

When the accident occurs due to simple exposure to the risks arising from the daily activities for which the worker was hired, the ARL covers the economic benefits (disabilities) and assistance benefits (hospitalization, treatments, among others), necessary for the recovery of the worker. This situation is known as strict liability, and it is not analyzed if there was fault of the employer in the occurrence of the work accident.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, if it is proven that the worker deliberately caused the accident at work, there would be a possibility that the ARL does not respond for the assistance and economic benefits derived from the accident at work. In this circumstance, the ARL should demonstrate the intention of the worker to cause the accident at work.

Now it is important to analyze the situation when a work accident occurs due to the employer’s fault. Faced with a scenario like this, the ARL would still respond for welfare and economic benefits, but the door would be opened for what is known as employer fault or a subjective responsibility of the employer.

The jurisprudence of the Labor Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice has established that, if the employer is proven guilty in a work accident, the company should pay the worker the damages caused to compensate for that damage. Of course, this must be processed before a Labor Judge, who will be the only one empowered to order a company to pay these damages. The concepts for which a company could respond are the loss of profits and the consequential damage of the worker, as well as the family group affected by the accident.

For the above, it is important that companies have updated their SG-SST, so that they have very well identified the possible risks and their form of mitigation to minimize the possibility of the occurrence of an accident at work.

By LLOREDA CAMACHO & CO, Colombia, a Transatlantic Law International Affiliated Firm.  

For further information or for any assistance please contact colombia@transatlanticlaw.com 

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