Facts
U., born in 1973, suffered a severe electric shock on the first day of his internship at the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), which required the amputation of his left lower leg. The Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA) awarded him a disability pension based on an insured annual income of 13,865 Swiss francs, as it had calculated the wage he had earned from a temporary job at the restaurant M. over a one-year period.
U. filed a complaint and requested that the pension calculation be based on an insured annual income of at least 50,000 Swiss francs, corresponding to the wage he would have earned in the year prior to the accident as a fully capable worker if the training at the SBB had been completed. The Insurance Court of the Canton of Basel-City upheld the complaint and referred the matter back to SUVA to determine the quantitative aspect.
Considerations
The Federal Insurance Court concluded that the Ordinance on Accident Insurance (UVV) contains a genuine gap regarding the insured income of interns. Since interns are not in vocational training within the meaning of Art. 24 para. 3 UVV, but are merely preparing for the choice of profession, this provision is not directly applicable.
To avoid arbitrariness and ensure equal treatment of interns, the insured income should be determined by analogy to Art. 26 para. 1 of the Ordinance on…