Posted By Alison Entwistle I am aware that RIDDOR questions are raised regularly and have looked through what I can see; however I have not seen anything that relates to my query. Please let me know your thoughts.... Employee has an accident on a Friday, is taken to hospital and then goes home a couple of hours later with bruising. Is not fit to start work again until Tuesday when he returns to work. Is this reportable as a + 3 day? The employee has had 3 days off, not 'over' 3 days... Bear in mind: HSE 31 the leaflet "RIDDOR Explained" outlines the requirement as follows: "An over-three-day injury is one which is not major but results in the injured person being away from work or unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three days (including any days they wouldn’t normally be expected to work such as weekends, rest days or holidays) not counting the day of the injury itself" In the regulations (L3 "A Guide to.....(RIDDOR)). "Reg 3(2) ......for more than three consecutive days (excluding the day of the accident but including any days which would not have been working days) ......." Para 57 of accompanying guide states ".....more than three days." Para "58 When calculating ‘more than three consecutive days’ the day of the accident should not be counted, only the period after it. Any days the injured person would not normally have been expected to work, such as weekends, rest days or holidays, must be included." Para "59 Some situations will include days when the injured person would not normally have been expected to work. Determining whether they would have been unable to do their normal range of duties for ‘more than three consecutive days’ may therefore involve a degree of judgement. It may be necessary to ask the injured person if they would have been able to carry out all of their duties if they had been at work." I am interested in the interpretation of the +3 day reporting requirement. Whilst it is better to report than not, if an organisation reports a day early each time it can affect incident rates, etc. Opinios please.....

Posted By David A Jones Alison, Totally agree with Heather on this one - NOT Reportable as an over 3-day injury. And, ignore those that say report it just in case

Posted By David A Jones Disagree, it would only be reportable if he was not fit for work on the Tuesday. I would presume he was fit for work at midnight on Monday/Tuesday if he turned up for work on the Tuesday - unless you are specifically informed to the contrary (if you want to be pedantic then you would have to ask the question)

Posted By Roger the Dodger Answer the following question was a straight 'yes' or 'no' 'Has the person been unfit for work for more than 3days/72hrs?' This will tell you if the incident is RIDDOR reportable.

Posted By Heather Aston Roger Where do you get the 72 hours from - it's certainly not mentioned in RIDDOR? The question is was the person unfit for three or more days - they were not in this case. It's not a "clock ticking thing". Only complete days count. Not fit for work Saturday - 1 day. Not fit Sunday 2 days. Not fit Monday 3 days. Fit Tuesday not 4 days. Didn't we have this discussion last week? So would you report this accident if say it happened at 10 am on Friday and the person didn't come in until 2 pm on Tuesday, because if you would then IMHO you are over reporting. Heather

Posted By Roger the Dodger I don't disagree with this last posting, I did originally say my argument was based on a technical point. In the final analysis, the guidance wording is bad, maybe it should say something like 'the 3day rule is invoked if the injured person doesn't report for his/her next work shift after 3 whole days have passed'

Posted By Alison Entwistle Thanks Heather I wonder whether it is worth seeing how many people would report an absence from work for 3 days only and who would only report those incurring 4 or more? Vote - 3 or 4 ...... ? I vote 4 Alison

Posted By Bill Elliott If the individual returned to work on Tuesday BUT was unable to complete the FULL range of his duties - REPORTABLE. If the individual returned to work on Tuesday fully fit to resume normal duties - NOT reportable.

Posted By JJ Alison, Do you not think that this thread has been done to death now ?

Posted By Mark Eden What is it you lot have got against reporting an incident? If you thought it bad enough to send someone to hospital then report the incident. The chances of it being investigated by the HSE or LEHO are very small. If it is investigated and you are found at fault , then tough.

Posted By Stephen J W Clegg. Hello Alison, I’d say it’s not reportable for two reasons: 1 The person didn’t receive any treatment at the hospital for the bruise. 2 The person was off for the DAYS you state i.e. three and not more than three. However, one of the postings correctly identified that if the person returned to work but was unable to carryout a full range of their duties, it would then become reportable, as stated in HSE 31. An example of this would be a window cleaner returning to work having had an accident on the Friday (not counted – as it’s the day of accident), was off Sat, Sun and Mon, returned on Tuesday but because of the injuries sustained in the accident on the Friday e.g. stiff neck resulting in restricted movement, only cleaned downstairs windows as oppose to climbing the ladder to do the upstairs as well. That's my thoughts anyway, if I'm wrong, no doubt it'll be brought to my attention. Hope this helps…

Posted By Heather Aston Mark - what a very bizarre view! "Us lot" have nothing against reporting accidents if they are in fact reportable. The fact that an employee is sent to hospital - often just a precaution - has nothing to do with whether the accident is reportable unless they are kept in over 24 hrs (Kevin is right on this and Phil is wrong BTW) Reporting "just in case" simply wastes the HSE's valuable time and shows the ignorance of the so-called safety professional making the report. Fault and blame have nothing to do with reporting BTW as we established in another thread. I doubt that any safety professional worthy of the name would neglect to report an accident because they were afraid the company might get the blame. (YMMV) Heather

Posted By Stuart Nagle Only reportable if, as part of his normal working week, he would have been expected to work either Saturday or Sunday. If not, it is not reportable, as 3 days have not been taken off: Friday off (Saturday) (Sunday) Monday off = 2 days Tuesday back into work = only 2 days off (unless would have normally worked either Sat or Sun or both).

Posted By John Nelson Has any consideration been given to an investigation and analysis of the accident to prevent a recurrence??

Posted By Heather Aston I think if you count weekends it's probably a Major Thread by now not just an over three day one. Heather

Posted By Heather Aston Absolutely. Presumably followed by a Dangerous Occurrence...... but only if there's an R in the month and they don't normally work on Christmas Day. Anyway Jon you know you should have prevented this by risk assessment don't you. :) Heather