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Posted By Peter MacDonald
On a Saturday, just before the end of his shift a employee of a subcontractor working on a Industrial Complex has a fall (Cause unknown at time of writing). At the time he was asked by his supervisor (who did not see the fall but recalls seeing him prone on the ground)if he was OK. The employee say's he's fine. At home that evening his foot starts throbbing, goes to casulty and his ankle is found to be broken. He reports the injury on the Monday to the Complex Management. Complex management are arguing that as it was not reported at the time they cannot record it as an accident on their complex.
Is there a moral case to accept it did, identify causes, and manage residual risk, or are they technically correct and within their right to protect their statistics. (I am aware that the bone injury may have happened later)
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By AlanB
This is a problem that we have had at our place of work. We have had a person coming into work, only to report he had suffered an injury at work the previous day and would like to record the incident. The employee had ample time to report the incident the day before. He said there were no witnesses, and that didn't feel the incident was important enough to report the previous day.
We had highlighted many a time prior to this incident that all accidents and incidents, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, must be reported,on the day of the incident, to the Supervisor or Manager. Incidents reported the following day or later would not be recognised by the company.
As it turned out, this chap had not been injured at work, but had picked up his injury playing 5 a side football the evening before, and was after the opportunity to make a claim against the company. Had the company a different policy of accepting reports of incidents other than at the time of occurrence, then we wopuld be looking at a potential claim.
We have our procedure in place to protect the company. We ensure that there is always an opportunity for all incidents to be reported on the day of occurrence. Any reports after that are not recognised.
It is a difficult situation to be in, but if you have a policy ikn place, then stick to it. If not, look at the pros and cons of accepting "late" accident reports, and then make your policy.
Alan
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Kieran Dowling
I don't see how any policy can exclude late reporting of accidents. It's surely for the individual to enter a report in the accident book if he/she has an accident at work.
Whether you choose to believe it is for you to decide. Surely in this case with a broken ankle it's either an over 3 day RIDDOR reportable injury, major injury or both?
What would happen in the case of an ULD which can take weeks/months to develop? Unless employees are expected to be prescient they should be afforded the right to report them when they believe they occurred.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Linda Westrupp
Peter
I think you'll find that the current Accident Book states quite clearly that an accident can be entered at any time and there is no time limit. Anyone who has had a form from Social Security on behalf of an employee claiming Industrial Injury Benefit will have had a note attached telling them this. In deciding whether to award Industrial Injury Benefit they use the accident book entry and the answers given by the employer to a set of questions. Unless there is strong evidence that an injury was not caused at work, even if it was not reported at the time, they are likelyto record it as an Industrial Injury.
I would therefore consider a non-recognition unless reported immediately policy as untenable and that it would probably not stand up in a court case, either for criminal proceedings or in a claims case.
While you may decide not to record an incident in your stats if it appears suspect, you cannot prevent an employee making an entry in the on-site accident book (BI 510), even if it a year late! You also would need to report it to HSE once you were informed as they may well take a dim view of employers choosing to disregard incidents.
Linda
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Jay Joshi
In this case, the person who had the alleged injury is not an employee of the Complex Management, but a contractors employee. Surely, in context of entry in an accident book, it will be in the employer, i.e. contractors accident book.
One cannot prevent an employee from making an entry in an "accident book" or other equivalent systems, but an employer can verify or otherwise the accuracy of the entry.
Although there can be employees who misuse the system, especailly for parapatetic workforce, where the scope for misuse is greater, surely in this case, there was a witness, albeit not seen the actual accident!
That is why reactive accident performance statistics can hide the true accidents!!
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