Zwłoka w zgłoszeniu wypadku przy pracy rolniczej a prawo do jednorazowego odszkodowania

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of late reports of accidents at work in an agricultural environment and attempts to answer the question whether a delay in reporting such an agricultural accident has any influence on the right to claim single indemnity for an accident at work. The first part of the paper determines the conditions that must be satisfied in order for the accident to be considered as reported without delay. Further in the paper, legal consequences of a late report of an accident at work, and the possible limitation of the right to claim compensation are presented. Farmers are often late to notify the insurer about an accident, despite the requirement that such an agricultural accident at work should be reported not later that 6 months following its occurrence. However, there are no legal sanctions if this date is not met. Therefore in practice, a late report does not result in any direct legal consequences, and a late claim is rejected on grounds o f unnecessary delay only if late reporting has impaired the possibility of ascertaining the actual circumstances of the accident. As can be deduced from the statistics of reported agricultural accidents, the current regulations in Poland, although introduced to discipline potential claimants, seem unsatisfactory.