★ Brief
Liu had a labor relationship with Pulian company from 2 September 2016 to 1 September 2019.
On 23 August 2019, Liu was injured when he fell down on his electric bicycle on his way from work and a passer-by called the police on the spot. On 28 August 2019, the traffic police detachment of a branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued a “Certificate of Road Traffic Accident” in relation to Liu’s accident after investigation, which was verified by the police and determined that the facts and causes of the accident could not be ascertained.
On 16 September 2019, Pulian Company filed an application for work injury recognition with Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) for Liu. On 12 November 2019, HOHRSS made a decision on work injury recognition based on Article 14(6) of the Regulations on Work Injury Insurance and Article 14(6) of the Shanghai Measures for the Implementation of Work Injury Insurance, finding that the injury sustained by Liu in the accident on 23 August 2019 was a work injury.
After receiving the decision, Pulian was not convinced and appealed to a district people’s court in Shanghai, requesting to revoke the decision to determine the work injury.
★The verdict
The court ruled that the lawsuit request of Pulian was rejected. The court held that, according to Article 67 of the Regulations on Procedures for Handling Road Traffic Accidents, if the basic facts of a road traffic accident cannot be ascertained and the cause cannot be determined, the traffic management department of the public security authorities shall issue a Certificate of Road Traffic Accident. According to the accident certificate, the facts and causes of the accident could not be ascertained, which also indicated that it was not clear that Liu was primarily responsible for the accident. Under this circumstance, Liu was considered to be “not primarily responsible for the accident”, and it was not improper for the MOHRSS to apply the provisions of Article 14(6) of the Work Injury Insurance Regulations to determine the work injury.
★ Comment of Lawyer Tang
Article 14(6) of the Regulations on Work-Related Injury Insurance stipulates that “An employee shall be deemed to be injured at work if he/she has one of the following circumstances: on his/her way to or from work, he/she is injured in a traffic accident or an accident on urban railways, passenger ferries or trains for which he/she is not primarily responsible.” From this, it can be seen that in order to be considered as a work-related injury, the following three conditions must be met at the same time: on the way to or from work; in a traffic accident or an accident on an urban railroad, passenger ferry or train; and when the employee is not primarily responsible for the injury.
With regard to “not being primarily responsible”, Article 2 of the Opinions of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Certain Issues Concerning the Implementation of the Regulations on Work-Related Injury Insurance stipulates that the determination of “not being primarily responsible” shall be based on the legal documents issued by the relevant authorities or the effective ruling of the People’s Court.
In this case, the employee was involved in an electric bicycle accident on his way from work, and the traffic police department issued a certificate that the facts could not be ascertained and the cause could not be determined according to the facts and legal provisions. The court held that the decision was not improper. We would like to remind all workers to report traffic accidents to the police in time to have the accident certificate issued by the traffic police to avoid future disputes.
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