A farmer’s wife fell from a ladder while cleaning the nesting boxes for farm birds attached to the wall of the sheep pen. But was that a work-related accident? Yes, the courts say, because birds would also be good for farm animals.
The self-employed farmer keeps fattening pigs, ewes, rams, lambs and chickens. The woman earns most of her money by selling meat from the farm. But an orchard with old fruit varieties is also part of their organic farm.
The woman suffered compression fractures of two lumbar vertebrae during the fall. The Linz regional court decided that there was an accident at work. Cleaning the nest boxes is “in the broadest sense part of the agricultural operation’s primary production.” The Social Insurance Institute for the Self-Employed, however, went to the Linz Higher Regional Court (OLG) and explained that there are birdhouses in many gardens and that this is not typical of a farm.
The Higher Regional Court (12 Rs 12/26k) replied that birds are good for the farm animals because “the insects in the stable are combated with the help of birds”. And “the quality of the green fodder is also reduced by pest infestation, such as lice, caterpillars, beetles or snails, and the yield drops. The birds that breed in the nesting boxes promote biodiversity and the additional young birds that grow up destroy a larger number of harmful insects.” The farmer’s wife is at least lucky in misfortune: this is considered a work-related accident and this gives rise to rights such as better therapy or the possibility of a disability pension.
