The employer is responsible for occupational health and safety

The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic on May 22, 2025 by the decision Case No. 2 Stk 1/2024 dismissed the cassation complaint against the judgment of the Administrative Court in Banská Bystrica, Case No. BB-75S/35/2022, in the matter of employer liability for failure to secure a gable partition on a construction site.

The National Labour Inspectorate issued a decision imposing a fine of EUR 20,000 on the claimant (hereinafter referred to as the “employer”) for breaching his duty to ensure occupational safety and health protection (hereinafter referred to as the “OSH”). The breach was alleged to be that the employer failed to secure a free-standing gable partition that extended over the wall (attic) during roof repairs. Due to a gust of wind, failure to secure the partition and its extension over the attic, the partition fell, and the employee was subsequently crushed and suffered an occupational accident with serious injuries as a result of the fall of the partition.

The Administrative Court in Banská Bystrica also agreed with the legal opinion that the employee’s occupational injury occurred as a result of a breach of occupational health and safety obligations, and dismissed the employer’s administrative action.

In the cassation proceedings, the employer argued, among other things, that the Administrative Court in Banská Bystrica did not at all deal with the assessment of the impact of the wind on the fall of the partition as a vis maior circumstance. Similarly, according to the employer, the court did not examine in more detail the objection that the gable partition that caused the employee’s occupational injury was not built by the employer itself, but by other business entities to which the responsibility for health protection at work on the construction site arose from the contractual relationship. According to the employer, these two circumstances constitute grounds for liberation (i.e. exemption from obligations and liability for the employee’s injury). If, moreover, the cause of the fall of the partition was not established, then there is also no causal connection between the fall of the partition and the employee’s injury.

According to the Court of Cassation, the responsibility for committing the administrative offence in question is based on objective liability, and therefore the fault on the part of the employer does not need to be examined. In other words, the employer was responsible for implementing the construction in accordance with the rules of occupational safety and health protection, should have ensured the safety of all persons authorized to be on the construction site and at the same time should have maintained the construction site in such a condition that the threat to these people was prevented.

This decision was adopted unanimously by the Panel of the Supreme Administrative Court and no appeal is admissible against it.

The decision was made by the Panel No. 2 of the Supreme Administrative Court composed of: President of the Senate Prof. JUDr. Juraj Vačok, PhD. and members of the Panel JUDr. Elena Berthotyová, PhD. and JUDr. Marián Trenčan.