Why Was the Recognition of "Occupational Heatstroke" as a Work-Related Injury So Fraught with Twists and Turns?
2024-04-18
654
0人评论
A construction worker died of heat stroke, and obtaining a work-related injury determination proved extremely difficult, so his family brought the case to court. This case became the first in Sichuan Province in which "occupational heat stroke" entered judicial proceedings, with the "two heads" of the court and procuratorate jointly performing their duties in court to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of workers with work-related injuries.
In early April, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court held a hearing on an administrative confirmation case concerning the work-related injury determination of "occupational heat stroke." In the case, a construction worker suddenly suffered heat stroke and collapsed while working and died several days later, and his family had fought for nearly six years without obtaining a work-related injury determination. The public hearing of the case attracted widespread attention from all sectors of society.
At the hearing, the President of the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court served as presiding judge, and the Chief Procurator of the Provincial People's Procuratorate appeared in court to support the protest. Also observing the hearing were some deputies to the National People's Congress and the Provincial People's Congress, members of the CPPCC, people's supervisors, experts and scholars, and relevant personnel from competent administrative departments. At the conclusion of the trial, the litigation goal of the construction worker's family—that the local human resources and social security bureau restart the work-related injury determination procedure—was achieved, and the administrative dispute in the case was substantively resolved. This case is also the first judicial case in Sichuan Province in which "occupational heat stroke" (heat stroke) was determined to be a work-related injury.
Why was the determination of "occupational heat stroke" as a work-related injury so full of twists and turns? A reporter from Workers' Daily conducted an in-depth interview on this matter.
Extremely few cases of "occupational heat stroke" determined as work-related injuries
According to public information provided by the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court, Luo was a worker at a construction site in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, and the construction company had purchased work-related injury insurance for him. On July 19, 2018, Luo suddenly collapsed when work at the site had ended, and died one week later after treatment proved ineffective. On August 2, Luo's family applied for a judicial appraisal, which concluded that "Luo's condition was consistent with sudden collapse after heat stroke, head impact with the ground, causing cerebral contusion and laceration with hemorrhage and infarction, and secondary lobar pneumonia leading to acute respiratory and circulatory dysfunction and death."
On October 29, Luo's family applied to the local human resources and social security bureau for a work-related injury determination, but because they failed to submit a Certificate of Occupational Disease Diagnosis or an Occupational Disease Diagnosis and Appraisal Certificate, they were informed that the circumstances of his death did not conform to the relevant provisions on work-related injury determination, and the bureau issued a Decision Not to Determine a Work-Related Injury in Luo's case.
In fact, Luo's family had applied to hospitals and centers for disease control and prevention with diagnostic qualifications for an occupational disease diagnosis of Luo, but because they were unable to obtain from the employer the testing materials on occupational disease hazard factors, such as the circumstances and course of the worker's onset on the day in question, none of the applications were accepted.
A responsible person from the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court stated that cases in which "occupational heat stroke" (heat stroke) is determined to be a work-related injury are extremely rare, and this case is the first of its kind in Sichuan. The reasons are, on the one hand, that employers, workers, and relevant departments neglect the standard that "occupational diseases shall be determined as work-related injuries" and the issue that "heat stroke falls within the scope of occupational diseases"; on the other hand, there are few professional institutions and personnel qualified to diagnose heat stroke, which无形ly increases the difficulty of determination.
"Even professional institutions qualified to diagnose heat stroke will act very cautiously in practice and usually make such a determination only when the materials are very sufficient. Moreover, some employers are slack in performing their statutory obligations during the diagnosis and appraisal of workers' occupational diseases and are unwilling to cooperate in providing the materials needed for occupational disease diagnosis and appraisal, hindering workers' applications for occupational disease diagnosis," said Professor He Ling, Vice Dean of the Law School of Southwest Minzu University and Vice President of the Labor and Social Security Law Research Association of the Sichuan Provincial Law Society.
Court and procuratorate jointly performing duties in court activate a "dormant" provision
After the work-related injury determination application was rejected by the human resources and social security bureau, Luo's family filed an administrative lawsuit in accordance with the law, but after several twists and turns, it was still ruled to be dismissed.
In 2021, Luo's family applied to the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate for supervision. The procuratorate carried out visits and investigations ex officio to verify facts such as the on-site conditions on the day Luo fell ill, the weather, the temperature of the workplace, and witness testimony. Meanwhile, upon the application of Luo's daughter, the procuratorial organ assisted in providing relevant materials, and West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University issued a Certificate of Occupational Disease Diagnosis in April 2022, with the diagnostic conclusion stating that Luo had "occupational heat stroke (heat stroke)." After review, the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate held that the Certificate of Occupational Disease Diagnosis constituted new evidence in the administrative litigation and submitted it to the Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate for protest.
The Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate held that Luo's occupational disease diagnosis certificate constituted new evidence in the administrative litigation and complied with legal provisions, and could prove that the heat stroke from which Luo suffered was an occupational disease, conforming to the provisions of Article 14, Item 4 of the Regulation on Work-Related Injury Insurance, under which suffering from an occupational disease shall be determined as a work-related injury. The provincial procuratorate filed a protest with the provincial high court in accordance with the law, and the procedure for determining Luo's work-related injury was ultimately restarted.
According to the handling prosecutor, Luo was 50 years old at the time of his death and was the economic pillar supporting his family. Determining through procuratorial supervision that Luo's death was a work-related injury and promoting the granting of corresponding work-related injury insurance benefits not only substantively resolved this administrative dispute but also improved the living conditions of Luo's family.
The reporter learned that as early as 2013, the Classification and Catalogue of Occupational Diseases had already included heat stroke within the scope of occupational diseases, and Article 14, Item 4 of the Regulation on Work-Related Injury Insurance also clearly provides: "Suffering from an occupational disease shall be determined as a work-related injury." In addition, the Measures for the Administration of Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling Measures provide: "Where a worker suffers heat stroke due to work in high temperatures or work in high-temperature weather and is diagnosed with an occupational disease, he or she shall enjoy work-related injury insurance benefits."
"In recent years, with the emergence of extreme high-temperature weather, the number of patients with occupational heat stroke has increased year by year, with outdoor workers and manual laborers being the high-incidence groups, but in practice not many apply for occupational disease diagnosis or succeed in obtaining a diagnosis," said Wang Enhui, Director of Sichuan Weixu Law Firm and a member of the Civil Case Consulting Lawyer Expert Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. He believes that the provincial high court and provincial procuratorate jointly promoting the resolution of this case has, to a certain extent, activated the "dormant" provisions concerning the protection of the rights and interests of workers with this category of occupational disease.
"One case is better than a dozen documents"
He Ling has long focused on research in labor and social security law. She believes that during the trial of this case, the "two heads" of the court and procuratorate performed their duties in the same courtroom and jointly carried out the substantive resolution of the administrative dispute, which will further raise society's awareness of occupational diseases and promote the improvement of the occupational disease determination and prevention system, playing the role of "handling one case, governing a whole area, and benefiting one region."
He Ling also proposed that for such labor dispute cases, administrative organs, judicial organs, and social organizations all need to fully leverage their own functions, place the safeguarding of workers' lawful rights and interests in an important position, help and support workers in difficulty, and jointly assist in the work-related injury determination of workers' occupational diseases. For example, administrative organs should strengthen the use of resources and key monitoring and continuously improve service capabilities; judicial organs should conduct fair adjudication in accordance with the law and settle disputes, fully considering workers' rights to labor safety protection and social insurance; and organizations such as trade unions should strengthen publicity, training, and educational guidance to prevent the occurrence of occupational diseases at the source.
"One case is better than a dozen documents." In Wang Enhui's view, workers enjoy the right to labor safety protection and social insurance, but the determination of occupational diseases as work-related injuries has long faced problems of great difficulty in appraisal and major disputes, and evidence preservation for heat stroke in particular is very difficult. As the first case in Sichuan in which "occupational heat stroke" entered judicial proceedings, this case not only provides a model for the determination of occupational diseases in this field but also gives workers and employers a vivid lesson in legal education, greatly promoting the construction of harmonious labor relations.
评论 （0）