Work-Related Accident

in Soviet law, an accident incurred during job performance or in other circumstances specified by law.

The concept of a work-related accident encompasses both production accidents and cases unconnected with production, for example, accidents occurring during blood donation. In both cases, loss of the ability to work is considered a labor-related disability and confers the right to receive a pension and other assistance under preferred conditions and in increased amounts. For example, temporary disability for a labor-related injury is rated at 100 percent regardless of length of continuous service or trade union membership. Furthermore, if the accident occurs at work and the management is at fault, the victim is additionally compensated for losses suffered because of damage to health.

An accident is considered to be work-related if it occurs during the worker’s performance of labor duties; for a kolkhoz member, this means during work performed in the public sector. Also covered is work-related travel, as well as the performance of any actions in the interests of the enterprise or kolkhoz, including actions not authorized by the management. Other protected activities include commutation to and from work; the performance of state or public duties, as well as of special assignments from Soviet, Party, or other public organizations, including assignments unrelated to one’s primary job; and the performance of the duty of a citizen of the USSR to save human life, protect socialist property, and preserve the socialist legal order. The statute on the investigation and reporting of production accidents was adopted by the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions in 1966 and applies to all enterprises, institutions, and organizations, including kolkhozes. [17–1556–31