Legal responsibility of employer arising out of work accidents and occupational illness and fundamentals of the calculation of corporal damages

An employee may be subjected to a work accident or suffer from an occupational illness at the end of a certain period when he performs his obligations according to his work agreement with the employer. Such work accident or occupational illness may be caused by the employer?s breach of his obligation to protect and surveillance the employee according to article 77 of the Employment Act and article 332 of the Tort Law and secondary law by not taking the necessary cautions for health and safety at work or accrual of some reasons which are not possible to prevent or can not be encumbered beforehand.For the foregoing reasons, the employee becomes unable to work since his physical integrity is breached due to work accident or occupational illness. The employee?s inability to work may be permanent or temporary. The material losses of the employee due to his inability to work is tried to be compensated by the funds provided by the Social Security Institution at first stage.However there is no particular article regarding the compensation of the remaining losses when the losses compensated by the Social Security Institution do not cover the entire loss of the employee. Therefore, the provisions concerning torts, set out within general articles of the Law of Obligations, are referred for the compensation of the remaining losses of the employee.The employer compensate the occurred material damages of the employee according to the principle of the fault when there is a fault of the employer and otherwise, according to the principle of the employers liability (employers risk responsibility) if there is an appropriate causal connection between the incident and the damage as established in practice by the Appellate Court?s decision.It is possible that the employees can recourse to the employer for compensation of damages due to complete or partial inability to work or from unsteadiness of economic future and all costs incurred due to these damages as set out in article 46 of the Code of Obligations.In the case filed by the employee against the employer for the compensation of material damages, the material damages is determined by the Court after the establishment of the scope of these damages first and than setting forth the factors affecting such determination and displaying the factors that affect the material damages and lastly having an expert examination based on all evidences gathered.Also Article 43 and 44 of the Code of Obligations which are the other articles related to torts are referred for the determination of the material damages of the employees. It should be noted that deduction is made from the total gross loss of the employee that is divided into two periods as overdue and forthcoming term, on the basis of and in proportion to fairness reduction and contributory negligence reduction. Therefore total net loss of the employee is determined after deduction of the benefits obtained by the employee due to material damages and of the taxes, premiums and contributions required to be deducted from the compensation.