Date: 14 March 2018

There is a tendency to make occupational disease findings with great ease. The related investigations are managed by sanitary authorities while employers remain completely passive. But this inactivity may prove costly for them. In 1990s Poland amended its liability regime for occupational diseases and accidents at work. It is no longer the rule that any monies are payable in such cases only pursuant to social security law. Now employers may be held liable also under civil law, in which case they may be ordered to pay damages (including periodic damages). For the employees, these awards (made as a result of civil actions) may potentially be even higher than social security benefits and they are no longer basically just an add-on to the latter. An official finding of occupational disease is a direct incentive to claim private damages, especially because such findings are not difficult to obtain. For the full text of the article, see Rzeczpospolita on-line, the Dobra Firma weekly and here.