How should an employer act when employees use “physical violence” against each other?

The Law Firm’s attorneys helped the Client resolve a problem related to an unpleasant incident that occurred at his workplace, in which two employees, while performing their work, quarrelled and used “physical violence” against each other.

In the case of such incidents, it is always necessary to carry out post-accident investigations to determine the circumstances and causes of the accident at work, because according to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, “the employer must consider as an accident at work an event during which an employee was beaten by another employee. It is irrelevant in this regard that this took place before joining work, e.g. in the changing room” (the Supreme Court judgment of November 8, 2012, II PK 80/12).

In the event that such an incident occurs on the premises of the workplace, in the presence of other employees, the employer should not wait for an official report from the injured employee, but should immediately proceed to make the appropriate arrangements.

It should be borne in mind that in order to establish the circumstance that an event was an accident at work, it is sufficient to establish its connection with work, i.e. to establish that it was in a temporal, local or functional relationship with work (e.g., the Supreme Court judgment of June 17, 2006, I UK 28/06). Pursuant to Article 3(1)(1) of the Act of October 30, 2002 on social insurance for accidents at work and occupational diseases, an accident at work is defined as a sudden event caused by an external cause resulting in injury or death, which occurred in connection with work, during or in connection with the employee’s performance of ordinary activities or instructions from superiors.

Regardless of the need to conduct an accident investigation, the employer should assess whether a fight between employees, does not violate the rules of social coexistence established in his workplace, and above all, whether it does not violate the order and organization of work established in the company – which may be a premise for the application of order penalties against such employees.

You can read about the principles of imposing order penalties [here].