Mariana Saroa de Souza
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The TRT of the 2nd Region held that Covid-19 can be recognized as an occupational disease as long as the causal link between the employee’s professional activities and the disease is characterized.
In a lawsuit filed by the estate of a worker who contracted Covid-19 and died from complications of the disease, it was claimed that the occupational disease was recognized as an accident at work, as well as the payment of compensation for moral and material damages and the establishment of alimony.
However, the magistrates of the 5th Panel of the TRT-2 unanimously dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims, upholding the decision of the lower court, on the grounds that the existence of a causal link between the illness that killed the worker and the activity he carried out at the company had not been proven.
The judge-rapporteur of the ruling, Patrícia Cokeli Seller, held that “The elements in the case file are not sufficient to characterize the illness as eminently work-related, i.e. there is no way to be certain that the illness that affected the worker was strictly due to his work activity. Mere indications, as we know, are not enough for a possible conviction”.
Furthermore, the evidence produced in the case proved that the defendant company had all the necessary measures in place to preserve the physical health of its employees, which is why the plaintiffs were unable to prove that covid-19 affected the former employee solely as a result of his work activity.
It is therefore of the utmost importance that companies not only adopt all the necessary measures to prevent Covid-19, but also document them in order to prove the absence of guilt in the event of employee contamination and, if in doubt about how to proceed, seek legal advice, which Marcos Martins Advogados is qualified to provide.
