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A court has ruled that sustaining an injury at home or your home office is a workplace accident. The judges decided that walking from your bed to your desk in another room can be considered a commute to work. Any injuries sustained on that short journey can be eligible for compensation. The ruling was made in a case where a man slipped while walking down stairs from his bedroom to his home office and fractured a vertebra. The court decided that the "first morning journey from bed to the home office is an insured work route". This decision could start a rush of similar cases.
The idea of what a workplace is has changed since the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people have switched to working at home. This has implications for health and safety issues around the home workplace and accidents. One question is who is responsible for ensuring a home office satisfies safety laws. Also, to what extent an employer is liable for injuries sustained in an employee's home. An expert on employment law said new legislation would be needed to decide future claims. He told the CNN news agency that: "It seems likely that insurers will…have to revisit this ruling often."
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