Employment Law2026-10-28

Injured during your lunch break while working from home – does that count as a workplace accident?

You slipped or hurt yourself during your lunch break while working from home, and the accident insurer has turned you down? I explain when an accident like this does count as a workplace accident – and how to challenge a refusal.

You were working from home. During your lunch break you slipped or injured yourself. Now the statutory accident insurer (the Berufsgenossenschaft) has refused to treat it as a workplace accident, on the basis that you supposedly hurt yourself “in your own time at home”. That is not automatically correct. Whether your accident is covered depends on the detail – and many refusal decisions never examine that detail at all.

In short

An accident during your lunch break while working from home is not automatically excluded from statutory accident insurance cover. Nor is it automatically covered. What matters is exactly what you were doing at that moment. If what you were doing served to keep you fit for work and was closely connected to your job, cover may well exist – for instance on the way to get something to eat. Purely private activities during the break, by contrast, are not protected. The dividing line is often a matter of a few steps – quite literally, at the front door of your home.

How I can help

Reviewing the accident insurer’s refusal decision for errors in its legal reasoning
Lodging an objection within the one-month deadline and building the argument
Securing and presenting the evidence on your daily routine, working hours and what you were trying to achieve
Representing you in the objection procedure and, if necessary, in proceedings before the Social Court (Sozialgericht)
Advising whether, alongside this, you may have claims against your employer or under a private accident insurance policy

The basic rule: working from home is treated the same as the office

Under section 8(1), first and second sentences, of the German Social Code, Book VII (SGB VII), a workplace accident occurs where you suffer harm to your health while carrying out an insured activity. The cause must be a time-limited event acting on the body from outside. Section 8(1), third sentence, SGB VII makes one thing expressly clear: where the insured activity is carried out in the insured person’s home or at another location, insurance cover exists to the same extent as if the activity were carried out at the employer’s premises. In legal terms, the legislator has therefore placed working from home on the same footing as the office – at least for the actual work itself.

The difficulty begins where the work is interrupted. The lunch break itself is, in principle, not an insured activity – whether in the office or at home. Eating and drinking are generally private matters. They serve your own recovery, not your work. In the office, this principle is softened by a special rule covering the journey to get food – but when you are working from home, the reach of that special rule is narrower and more contested.

In deciding whether an accident during a break is covered, what matters is your purpose at the time – what German law calls your Handlungstendenz. Two questions are decisive. Was your primary aim, in doing what you were doing when you were injured, to keep yourself fit for work? And were you still, at that moment, closely connected to your work in time and in substance? Or was what you were doing, on closer inspection, a purely private activity that would have happened in just the same way with no connection to your job at all?

In practice this makes a considerable difference:

More likely to be covered: You interrupt your work briefly to fetch something to eat. There is still work to do and meetings to come. You injure yourself on the direct way there.
Less likely to be covered: You injure yourself cooking in your own kitchen, while actually eating, during a longer private shopping trip, or doing something that has nothing to do with getting food (private errands, exercise, housework).

This is the yardstick that recent Social Court decisions on break-time accidents in home working also apply: keeping fit for work as the underlying work-related interest, set apart from the purely private activity. The legal press has recently analysed several decisions on precisely this distinction. In one case, the journey to fetch food was recognised as a covered workplace accident. The person concerned was still in the middle of the working day and plainly intended to return to work. In another case, cover was refused because the inner connection to the work was too weak.

The front door as the dividing line

For the journey itself, section 8(2) no. 1 SGB VII applies in addition. Under that provision, the direct route to and from the place of work is also covered, in so far as it is connected to the insured activity. This rule was really designed for the classic commute between home and workplace. Where work is interrupted while home working, it is applied by analogy, provided the route to get food leads outside the home.

For drawing the line in practice, the front door of the home has become the point of reference. As long as you are moving around inside your own four walls, this is generally treated as part of your private living space, which is not separately insured. That holds true whether you are heading for the coffee machine or for the front door. The route covered under section 8(2) no. 1 SGB VII generally begins only when you leave your home and ends when you return through the same door. A fall on your own cellar stairs or in your own hallway is therefore regularly assessed differently from a fall on the pavement outside the building.

What you now have to prove and observe

The accident insurer does not automatically bear the burden of proving everything – you have to make the inner connection between the accident and your work plausible. The following points matter:

The sequence of events: When did you interrupt your work, when exactly did the accident happen, and when did you intend to carry on working? Calendar entries, chat messages or emails around the time of the accident are valuable evidence.
The purpose of the interruption: Was it apparent that the break was for getting food and that you intended to keep working afterwards – rather than that your working day had, in effect, already finished?
Reporting the accident: Report the accident to your employer promptly. Your employer must pass it on to the accident insurer. Have it documented by a doctor as well.
The objection deadline: If the accident insurer refuses to treat it as a workplace accident, section 84(1) of the Social Courts Act (SGG) gives you one month from notification of the decision to lodge an objection. If that deadline passes unused, the decision becomes binding. If the objection decision then dismisses your objection, the deadline for bringing a claim before the Social Court under section 87(1) and (2) SGG is likewise one month from notification.

A typical case

An employee has worked mainly from home for months. At midday she interrupts her work because several meetings are still scheduled for the afternoon. She walks to the snack bar round the corner to get something to eat. On the pavement she falls and breaks her wrist. The accident insurer refuses to treat this as a workplace accident, reasoning that it happened “in her own time”. On closer examination, though, a different picture emerges: the employee was still in the middle of her working day. The interruption was plainly for getting food in order to stay fit for work. The accident happened on the direct route outside her home. With a properly reasoned objection and the right evidence of her daily routine, a decision like this can often be successfully challenged.

Common mistakes

Letting the one-month objection deadline slip because you wanted to “gather all the paperwork together” first.
Reporting the accident to your employer or the accident insurer too late or too vaguely, so that the connection in time with your work can no longer be shown afterwards.
Assuming, in blanket terms, that “working from home is covered anyway” – and for that reason not setting out clearly enough why this particular interruption was work-related.
Accepting the refusal decision without objection, even though the accident insurer never examined your actual purpose at all.

Frequently asked questions

Is every accident while working from home automatically a workplace accident?

No. What is insured under section 8(1), third sentence, SGB VII is the insured activity itself, not everything you do during working hours at home. Breaks, eating and private errands are in principle not covered, unless the particular route there meets the requirements of section 8(2) no. 1 SGB VII.

Does a quick bit of shopping during the break count too?

That depends on the purpose and the route. If you step out of the home briefly to get food so that you can carry on working, that route may be covered. It is different with a longer private shopping trip or errands that have nothing to do with getting food. Activities of that kind are generally classed as private.

What applies if I injure myself inside my own home?

Here the line is drawn particularly tightly. As long as you are moving around inside your home, for example in the kitchen or hallway, this is usually treated as part of your private living space and is not separately insured – regardless of the purpose of what you were doing. The route covered under section 8(2) no. 1 SGB VII generally begins only when you leave the home through the front door.

How much time do I have to challenge a refusal?

You must lodge an objection against the accident insurer’s refusal decision within one month of notification, under section 84(1) SGG. If the objection is dismissed, the deadline for bringing a claim before the Social Court under section 87 SGG is likewise one month.

What do I have to show the accident insurer?

What matters is the activity in the course of which you were injured. You have to make it plausible that it was closely connected to your work in substance and in time and served to keep you fit for work. Evidence of your daily routine, of upcoming appointments and of how long the interruption lasted is helpful.

Your next step

If your accident insurer classes an accident while working from home as “private”, it is almost always worth taking a close look at the reasoning in the decision. The question of what you were actually trying to do is often not properly examined. I will review your decision, work out the deadlines that are running, and lodge an objection for you where the prospects of success justify it. You can find out more about my work in employment law on the practice-area page. The initial consultation is available nationwide, by video or telephone – simply send me your decision.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-10-28.

Christian Czirnich, Rechtsanwalt (attorney at law), Kirchseeon near Munich

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