Federal court: Company boss liable in the event of an accident at work
If an employee has an accident due to safety deficiencies, the company owner is liable. This is shown by a ruling of the Federal Supreme Court.
A CNC lathe suddenly started up on its own during maintenance work. A worker who was inside the machine at the time suffered severe injuries to his head and arm.
The investigation revealed that the machine's safety gate monitoring system had been manipulated so that it could start moving even when the safety gate was open.
The Federal Court now ruled that the managing director was liable for the accident - even though the accident victim knew about the safety deficiency and was also partly to blame for the accident himself. One of the reasons given by the court was the "almost complete lack of a safety culture in the company" - which was demonstrated not least by the fact that the safety door monitoring system on other machines in the company had also been manipulated.
The managing director was sentenced to a conditional fine of 60 daily rates of 130 Swiss francs each for serious negligent bodily injury.
Go to Judgment with the detailed justification.
