The Legal Battle to Have a Workplace Accident Recognized: How to Prove the Link to Work

In Bulgarian law, recognizing an accident as a workplace accident is not a mere formality but a legal procedure that determines whether the injured person will have access to compensation and social benefits.
The key question is always proving the link between the incident and the work – the so-called “causal connection.”
The law requires establishing that the injury occurred “during and in connection with or on the occasion of” the work.
This means that it is not enough for the injury to have happened during the working day or on the premises of the enterprise; it must have arisen from the performance of work duties or be objectively related to them.

The legal definition of a workplace accident is provided in Article 55 of the Social Security Code (SSC).
According to this text, a workplace accident is any sudden impairment of health that occurred during and in connection with or on the occasion of the work performed and resulted in temporary incapacity for work, permanent reduction in working capacity or death.
In other words, a sudden and unforeseen event is required (for example, a fall, a blow, an electric shock) that causes damage to health and is in direct or indirect connection with the work activity.
The law expressly includes the so-called “commuting accidents” – those that occur on the usual route between the workplace and the worker’s home or the place where they usually take meals during the working day.
However, if the route was diverted for personal reasons – for example shopping or visiting a friend – this link with the work may be considered interrupted and the NSSI may refuse to recognize the accident as work-related.

For an accident to be recognized as a workplace accident, it must be declared to the relevant regional office of the National Social Security Institute (NSSI).
According to Article 57 of the SSC, the employer is obliged to submit a declaration on the approved form – Form O-11, which is available on the NSSI website – within five working days.
If the employer fails to fulfil this obligation, the injured worker or their heirs have the right to submit the declaration themselves within one year from the date of the accident.
Failure to comply with these deadlines may deprive the injured person of timely recognition and benefits, therefore it is important for the injured person to act independently if the employer remains inactive.

After submitting the declaration, the NSSI opens a file on the accident and collects evidence.
When the accident is serious or there are doubts about its connection with the work, an investigation is carried out involving inspectors from the NSSI and, in cases of death or serious injuries, representatives of the Labour Inspectorate.
The injured person or their representative has the right to be present during the investigation and to make objections or remarks.
The results of the investigation are set out in a protocol which, according to the law, enjoys a presumption of authenticity (that is, it is considered true until proven otherwise with other evidence).

In practice, proving the link between the incident and the work is usually based on several groups of evidence.
First are the witness statements of colleagues or eyewitnesses who can describe how the incident happened and what the injured person was doing at the time of the injury.
Next are the employer’s documents – schedules, orders for business trips, job descriptions and attendance sheets, which prove that the worker was at work and performing a specific task.
Medical documents – emergency reports, hospital discharge summaries and expert opinions – also play an important role; they must certify the sudden nature of the injury and its mechanism so as to exclude the possibility of a disease unrelated to the work activity.
In some cases technical evidence is also presented – CCTV footage, GPS data from company vehicles or access-control logs.
For “commuting accidents”, maps or route printouts are often submitted to prove that the incident occurred on the usual route without personal detours.

On the basis of the collected data, a designated official from the regional NSSI office issues within 14 days a decision either to recognize or to refuse to recognize the incident as a workplace accident.
This decision is delivered to the injured person and to the employer.
If either party disagrees with it, they have the right to appeal.
First, an appeal is submitted to the director of the same regional NSSI office within 14 days of receiving the decision.
The director must rule within one month.
Their decision in turn is subject to judicial appeal before the Administrative Court, again within 14 days.
These deadlines are preclusive (that is, if missed, the right to appeal is lost), therefore meeting them is crucial to the success of the case.

If the accident is recognized as a workplace accident, this opens the way to social-security benefits provided by the SSC – such as cash benefits for temporary incapacity for work, disability pension, rehabilitation or benefits for heirs in the event of death.
These payments come from the state social-security system.
In addition, the worker or their heirs have the right to claim compensation from the employer under Article 200 of the Labour Code for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages (for example, pain and suffering).
These are two different legal regimes, and one does not exclude the other.

In practice, the most common disputes arise due to lack of sufficient evidence of the causal link – for example, when there are no witnesses or when the incident occurred outside the employer’s premises and it cannot be proven that it was work-related.
Problems are also often caused by deviations from the usual route in commuting accidents or by the lack of prompt medical attention to certify the time and manner of the injury.
Employers often delay submitting the declaration or contest it, which leads to additional disputes and court proceedings.

To avoid such situations, experts recommend that immediately after the incident the employer and the competent institutions be notified, as much evidence as possible be collected – witnesses, photos, videos, employer’s documents and medical certificates – and that all deadlines for submission of the declaration and appeals be strictly observed.
In many cases it is advisable to seek legal assistance from a lawyer experienced in labour and social-security law.