What are compensation for pain and compensation for impaired social functioning?
Compensation for pain is a one-off payment for the physical and mental suffering caused by a work injury or an occupational disease, including the treatment, the removal of its consequences and any related complications.
An employee who later makes a full recovery is entitled to compensation for pain as well.
Compensation for impaired social functioning, by contrast, serves as compensation for permanent health consequences that adversely affect everyday life, for instance by restricting movement, by a loss of self-sufficiency, by the inability to pursue favourite activities or by the impossibility of meeting other needs.
When does the employee become entitled?
An employee becomes entitled to compensation for pain or for impaired social functioning once the following conditions are met:
- a work injury occurred or an occupational disease was recognised,
- the employee suffered harm to health (pain or impaired social functioning),
- there is a causal link between the work injury or the occupational disease and the harm.
I want to bring my claim. What do I do?
An employee can claim compensation for pain as soon as the state of health has stabilised.
Compensation for impaired social functioning can be claimed only once it is clear that the consequences will be permanent — as a rule no earlier than one year after the damage to health was caused by the work injury or the occupational disease.
The amount is determined by a points assessment. This is carried out by a doctor in a medical report under Government Regulation No. 276/2015 Coll., on compensation for pain and for impaired social functioning caused by a work injury or an occupational disease.
To bring the claim, the employee will therefore need a medical report with a points assessment, which, depending on the circumstances of the treatment, may be issued by the treating doctor (a specialist) or by a general practitioner.
For each point the employee is entitled to an amount determined under that regulation and the development of the average wage (more detail on the value of a point is in another article).
The resulting amount is therefore calculated as the number of points under the medical report x the amount per point.
The more serious the injury or the course of the disease, the higher the points assessment, and therefore the compensation
I have the report. Is the case won?
Unfortunately not.
The employer or its insurer may dispute the medical report with the points assessment and refuse the compensation, in whole or in part.
In that case it may come to court proceedings.
Obtaining appropriate compensation often calls for experience, knowledge of the rules and practice in dealing with insurers and employers. Without legal help an employee may lose a substantial part of their claim.
