One night, after work, the employee had sex with a woman at her house before returning to his hotel room. Later, he suffered a heart attack, which is said to have been linked to the encounter, and died.
A Paris court has held a firm liable for the death of one of its employee who passed away suffering a heart attack after having sex during a business trip, The New York Times reported. The court ruled that his death was an “industrial accident” and his family is entitled to compensation.
The man, identified as Xavier, had visited the Loiret region in central France as a security technician for the rail engineering company TSO in 2013. One night, after work, he had sex with a woman at her house before returning to his hotel room. Later, he suffered a heart attack, which is said to have been linked to the encounter, and died.
A health insurance provider decided that the death resulted from a work-related accident. However, TSO challenged the decision saying that Xavier had interrupted his work trip for an adulterous relationship and this was outside the firm’s purview. To this, the provider argued insisting that sexual activity was as normal as “taking a shower or a meal”.
The Paris appeals court upheld this view and said that an employee on a business trip is entitled to social protection “over the whole time of his mission”.
According to French law, any accident that happens on a business tour is “work-related” and the employer is responsible for it, even if it is not closely related to the employee’s mission.