Posted By AJM An employee leaves work early then rings in the next day after dropping off sick and says he has hurt his back at work the previous day then stops off all week. There is nothing in accident report book and nothing mentioned to anyone at the time, surely we need to actually know that an accident has actually occured to report it. Opinions please or any other types of experiences like this. Cheers Alan

Posted By Peter Moran Sounds like employee may have taken an evening flight to Germany to watch the footie for a week....in fact you don't know any different...'absent without leave' springs to mind...employee needs a return to work interview ASAP and clarification over your accident/illness procedure.

Posted By Alexander Falconer Whether or not the allegation is true, I would suggest a return to work interview with the employee. Try to verify what treatment he has received for his alleged injury...........! Once you have these facts, the ball falls back into the employees court.....why did he not report the accident? He should be aware of protocols from his H&S induction, gently remind him he has failed to co-operate with the employer on H&S matters, and consider investigating the matter further with HR, etc. to the extent Disciplinary action may be considered, etc, etc. andthat the fact the HSE now need to be involved. The chances that the story surrounding the alleged accident may well turn out to be something that they think happened at home or in personal time. Unfortunately, in this world of no win no fee claims, there are still chancers out to make a quick buck.

Posted By J Knight Hi Descarte, The original post says he's been off all week. The thing with back pain is that it can develop from a minor twinge to full blown spasm over a period of some hours. It could be that this bod felt a bit of a pull at work, then woke up unable to move. I concur with Alexander's views about RTW interviews etc, but unless you have a KPI about getting RIDDOR's down I can't see why you shouldn't report; HSE only come out for about 6% of reports anyway, so the odds are it'll just sit in some inbox for ever and a day with no come back; and if there is a ELI claim and the solicitor says 'Please send the original accident report plus RIDDOR' you can gleefully say 'Here's teh RIDDOR but the IP never filled an original report in', John

Posted By Paul Devlin In your own posting didnt you say that the employee had phoned in to say he had hurt his back at work?? I'd say thats him reporting the accident since he cant come and do it personally. Depends on your accident reporting procedures but you wouldn't expect a person who was taken away from work by ambulance for a serious injury to return the same day to fill out the accident book. A half decent procedure would expect the injured person to report the accident as soon as is practicable. In this case you as the manager should have completed what you can in your accident book with investigation to follow. Interviewing the person on return to work would cover this. In mitigation you didnt actually say if there was anyone that the person could have reported it to before they left, if they worked alone etc so its a hard one to call. As for the cynics its generally the case you can hurt yourself and not fully realise for a short while after the event, particularly with your back. The medical fraternity now say its best to try and get back to normal as soon as possible after hurting you back but not till the pain has gone at least, which would be a few days at best. your fellow cynic. Paul.

Posted By Alexander Falconer It is all fine and dandy saying that the employee phoned in - whilst this is fine and can often be the first protocol in reporting an injury. Look at the original thread, the employee left "early" many companies require any employees leaving early to request permission from their immediate line manager and this is often the first step in incident reporting protocols. Sounds like to me the employee just left early without telling anyone, this again could be a breach of contract (as well as H&S especially if the fire alarm was activated and the employee is reported as missing)

Posted By Nicholas Morris If an incident's not reported on the day then I'd not consider it as RIDDOR- the individual may have done something at home. It's not possible to categorically state cause and effect, i.e. an incident at work resulted in the individual missing 3 days following. Whether or not a company has any internal KPIs in this area, surely the HSE use the number of reportables as a rough guide to safety performance- I don't report unless its absolutely clear its RIDDOR.

Posted By Bill Parkinson Think we are mixing some things up. First the person has reported that he is off work due to an injury sustained at work. If he is not fit for his normal duties for more than 3 days beginning the day after the incident then it falls within the criteria for reporting under RIDDOR. The fact that he has not filled in an accident report or complied with the organisations procedures does not form part of the decision making for RIDDOR incidents. You may wish to discipline them when they return to work (although you could face an harassment/intimidation grievance)but nevertheless the incident would still be reportable under RIDDOR. You can report late if you don't have all the relevant facts to complete the 2508 as long as you report it as soon as you can (due to the nature of my organisation I rarely get them reported on time!). If you don't report it and the person then pursues a claim against you they are entitled to receive a copy of the 2508 from the HSE and if they are not aware of the incident they will take suitable action (I know one organisation who didn't report an incident and the HSE were asked for the 2508. The organisation got fined £ 100,000 + costs!). I have come across this situation several times in my 20 years experience and would still stress if in doubt report it! I have had to in some incidents (fatal ones that is) had to discuss with the HSE whether they are reportable as in some instances in my industry sector not all fatal incidents fall under RIDDOR (work in healthcare) and in the last few we have reached the conclusion to report until the coroner has finished the inquest and if conclusions drawn that not related to workplace then file is closed. Would also suggest if you need to speak to a HSE Inspector direct. I contacted the infoline 4 years ago regarding a road traffic incident on a public road in the workplace and I am still waiting for the answer from them (I got the answer straight away from the HSE Inspector)!