A decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union indicates that it is the employer who must assume the cost of the glasses or contact lenses of its employees if they need them for work.
Solicited by a Romanian court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered its decision in a recent judgment and it could well mark a turning point in the reimbursement of glasses and contact lenses for European employees.
It was a Romanian civil servant who sued his employer, the Immigration Inspectorate, when they refused to reimburse him for the 530 euros that his new glasses had cost. However, for him, his eyesight had deteriorated due to glasses that were too old. He claimed that working in front of a screen, combined with other risk factors (lack of natural light, overload, etc.) had reduced his visual acuity, making it difficult to work in front of a screen.
It is not up to the employee to pay
The decree largely repeats the conclusions of the Advocate General who, last July, was surprised that employees who, according to a medical examination, needed glasses or contact lenses to work in front of a computer are charged these fees.
selon the Law Journalthe European court relied on the directive which regulates the minimum provisions in terms of safety and health at work with screens which specifies that the employer is obliged to “provide the workers concerned with a special corrective device”, either by its delivery of said device, or “by the reimbursement of the expenses that the worker had to incur, but not by paying the worker a general salary supplement”.
The disorder must not be the direct consequence of the use of screens
The European Court of Justice also insists, in its decree, on the fact that the visual defect does not necessarily have to be the direct consequence of the use of screens. The national court will just have to check whether the glasses “are actually used to correct vision disorders linked to their work and not general vision problems which are not necessarily linked to working conditions”.
Note that in France, since January 1, 2020, eyewear opticians have been offering a selection of frames and lenses fully covered by Health Insurance and complementary health insurance under a responsible contract. It is therefore not the insured who pays for his glasses. At least not directly…
