The judgment of 22 December of the CJEU, case C-392/21, has ruled that the employer must bear the cost of prescription glasses for workers who need them to carry out their working day in front of a computer screen.
Currently, Spanish regulations (Royal Decree 488/1997 of 14 April 1997 and LPRL) do not contemplate the obligation on the part of the company to pay for glasses for the worker.
According to a recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), companies will have to pay for prescription lenses or contact lenses for employees who work with screens and need glasses for this purpose. Employers must provide workers with prescription glasses or contact lenses for work whenever medical examinations show that they are necessary. There is no requirement that working with display screens must be the direct cause of the visual impairment.
We inform you that the judgement of 22 December of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), case C-392/21, has ruled that the employer must bear the cost of prescription glasses for those workers who need them to carry out their working day in front of a computer screen.
The judgment follows a reference for a preliminary ruling from the “Curtea de Apel Cluj” (High Court of Cluj, Romania) on the analysis of Article 9 of Council Directive 90/270/EEC of 29 May 1990 on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment.
An inspector worker (General Inspectorate of Immigration, Romania) whose work is carried out in front of equipment including display screens, alleges that this activity, together with other risk factors, had led to an increase in the deterioration of his eyesight, which made it necessary, following the recommendation of a specialist doctor, to change his prescription spectacles.
This change cost him 530 euros and he claimed reimbursement of the money from the company. This request was refused by the Inspectorate and, therefore, they decided to take the case to the Romanian courts. The district of Cluj dismissed it, but the High Court understood, according to article 9.3 of Directive 90/270, that “the employer is obliged to provide workers with a special corrective device, either by handing it over directly or by reimbursing the money spent by the employee”.
The ruling states that employers are obliged to provide employees with vision problems with a “special corrective device”, i.e. prescription glasses or contact lenses.
This ruling may open the door for companies to provide (or pay amounts) to workers in workplaces with display screens (PV) who need prescription glasses for the development of their activity.
Currently, Spanish regulations (Royal Decree 488/1997 of 14 April 1997 and LPRL) do not contemplate the obligation on the part of the company to pay for glasses for the worker.
With this ruling, employees who, supported by a medical examination, need glasses, or contact lenses to work with screens could claim the associated costs, but only if it can be demonstrated that the visual impairment has been caused by working with screens specific to the company.
The ruling opens the possibility that companies may have to cover the cost of spectacles for their employees in certain cases (not in general) when the visual impairment has been caused by working with screens in the company. (Interpretation of the directive by the General Council of Colleges of Opticians-Optometrists).
Corrective devices
As far as corrective devices are concerned, this concept refers not only to spectacles but also to other types of devices that can correct or prevent eye disorders.
Normal corrective devices are those that are worn outside the workplace and are therefore not necessarily related to working conditions.
Such devices are not intended to correct work-related eye disorders and may not be specifically related to working with equipment that includes a display screen. On the other hand, special corrective devices serve to correct or prevent work-related eye disorders related to work performed with equipment that includes a display screen. Thus, they should, in the first place, be provided to workers if they are unable to use normal corrective devices to correct eye disorders diagnosed in the eye examinations carried out.
Therefore, a special corrective device must necessarily serve to correct or prevent vision disorders which a normal corrective device cannot correct or prevent.
Secondly, the special nature of the special corrective device presupposes that it is suitable for work with display screen equipment in so far as it serves to correct or prevent eye disorders specifically related to such work and diagnosed in the examinations referred to in Article 9(1) and (2) of Directive 90/270. For the right to obtain a special corrective device to arise, working with a display screen does not necessarily have to be the cause of these disorders, i.e. the damage may be pre-existing. Thus, the examination that reveals the need for a special corrective device may take place before starting to work with a display screen, which implies that the visual impairments that give rise to the employee’s entitlement to a special corrective device do not necessarily have to have been caused by working with a display screen.
The fact that special corrective devices, which include spectacles, must be suitable for the work in question does not mean that they must be used exclusively in the workplace or for carrying out professional tasks, since that provision does not lay down any restriction on the use of such devices. It is, however, for the national court to ascertain whether the new prescription spectacles are in fact intended to correct work-related visual impairments and not general visual problems which are not necessarily related to working conditions.
Article 9(3) of Directive 90/270 does not preclude national law from providing that a worker may, instead of receiving a special corrective device directly from his employer, choose to advance its cost and subsequently obtain its reimbursement, but not by paying the worker a general wage supplement.
Therefore, the special corrective devices provided for in that provision comprise prescription spectacles which are specifically designed to correct and prevent visual impairment in connection with work performed with equipment which includes a display screen.
For further information, please consult with Labor counselling.
