So you think you have accident insurance? Think again!
As a ski instructor, working in a high-risk job, one would think ones’ employer would cover oneself for accident insurance. This theory went up in the air on one fateful day…
T’was a beautiful, crisp, sunny Friday in the race training world, in Saas Fee, Switzerland. We all had a great, productive week race training with JJC Training and to finish off the 4th week of training, we were to complete a mock Euro test run. Everything went to plan. However, after the training, I decided to do ONE MORE RUN… and only skied half of the gates, and free skied the rest down to the T-Bar to collect my bag and ski on home. Unfortunately this part did not go to plan, and as I neared the bottom of the T-Bar, I can only presume, I got a tad lazy, and somehow managed to throw myself threw the air, so that I landed Collarbone first onto the flat slope, next to the T-Bar lift.
A helicopter ride, surgery, one plate and 8 screws later, I decided to find out about sick/accident pay…
I am now in a pretty rubbish situation; injured, no sick pay, and no way to pay rent = going home, trying to recuperate and find office work as quickly as I am able!
It turns out in Switzerland you must work 8 hours or more per week in order to qualify for non-work related accident insurance. Now, as Instructors this line is rather blurred as we all know one could work 30 hours one week and 2 hours the next week. However, the part I still do not understand is whether you NEED to have worked at least 8 hours before accident insurance covers you for non-work related accident OR whether you just need a contract that proves on average you WOULD work more than 8 hours a week over the winter season.
The reason I am still unsure of this is because, it turned out that my employer had a clause in our ‘other’ contract that stated I needed to have worked 8 hours for the insurance to kick in. Now is this just MY employer’s clause or is this in all employers’ contracts???
All instructors out there… Make sure you ask your employer if they will cover you for accident insurance whilst you are not working, especially if you are taking part in race training! I have been the unfortunate guinea pig for my Instructor friends!
If they do not, then seriously consider purchasing sick pay insurance on top of your normal insurance to cover you for loss of earnings!
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