Zhang works as a designer at an architectural design company in Beijing. The company does not provide lunch for employees, and they usually have lunch nearby. In July 2025, due to the temporary requirement of the project party that an urgent task must be delivered before 14:00 on the same day, Zhang and another colleague Wang worked overtime during their lunch break, resulting in missing their meal.

After the completion and delivery of the work, the two of them, with the approval of their leaders, went out for dinner at 13:40 and planned to go to a nearby fast food restaurant. When walking to the public road about 100 meters away from the office building, Zhang fell and was diagnosed with elbow contusion and comminuted fracture of the distal right humerus. Later, a certain architectural design company in Beijing applied to the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of a certain district for work-related injury recognition.

After review, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of a certain district issued a "Decision on Not Recognizing Work Injury", stating that Zhang was injured in an accident when he went out to solve his physiological needs and had already left work. He was injured during his personal disposable rest time, which does not meet the conditions for recognizing work injury under Article 14 of the Work Injury Insurance Regulations. Therefore, it is decided not to recognize work injury. After the district government, as the reconsideration authority, upheld the punishment decision, Zhang filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting the revocation of the "Decision on Non Work Injury Determination" made by the district human resources and social security bureau and the "Administrative Reconsideration Decision" made by the district government.

The court believes that the focus of the dispute in this case is whether Zhang's accident injury meets the conditions that should be recognized as a work-related injury under Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Work Injury Insurance Regulations. In this case, Zhang has a labor relationship with a Beijing architectural design company, which does not have a staff canteen and does not provide lunch to employees. On the day when Zhang was injured, it was a working day and he missed the normal meal time due to working overtime at noon. Later, he fell and injured himself while dining out, which should be considered as going out for work; Although the above-mentioned injury suffered by Zhang was not directly caused during the work process, the employee's need to go out for lunch after overtime was a necessary physiological need to continue working, and there is a causal relationship with the work reason; The time for dining out is considered as necessary work rest time for employees due to their work needs and should be recognized as working hours. Overall, Zhang's injury is consistent with the situation where he was injured during working hours, out of work, or due to work-related reasons.

During the trial, the court believed that the core issue involved in this case was whether the injury sustained by the employee during the meal due to physiological needs, after being delayed in normal meals due to emergency overtime, met the criteria for work-related injury determination. This type of situation has a certain universality in judicial practice, and the relevant recognition standards need to balance the protection of employee rights and the legislative intent of work-related injury recognition. In order to unify law enforcement standards and improve the quality and efficiency of work-related injury identification, the court has sent a work reminder to the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of a certain district on further standardizing the work of work-related injury identification related to physiological needs.

After receiving the work reminder, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of a certain district conducted in-depth analysis and ultimately voluntarily withdrew the "Decision on Refusal of Work Injury Determination" involved in this case, and immediately made the "Work Injury Determination Decision", determining that the accident injury suffered by Zhang meets the provisions of Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Work Injury Insurance Regulations, and deciding to recognize it as a work injury. Later, Zhang voluntarily contacted the court to withdraw the lawsuit, and the court ruled to allow him to withdraw the lawsuit. The administrative dispute involved in this case was substantively resolved.

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