Posted By Ian P
I would have thought a report from an occupational health therapist would have been in your company's interests and well worth the money in this case.

Posted By garyh
I have worked for 2 blue chip companies with very low accident rates, and very rigid policies on managing accidents.

Simply put, the dictum was "not reported at work - didn't happen at work". Any accident had to go in the accident book the day it happened. Period.

In other words, I would probably not accept this as a works accident; I would not report to HSE. I do get the impression that you "smell a rat".

My advice is, if you do not believe it is work related, don't accept or report it.

Posted By Bob Youel
Remembering that accident reporting is also subject to Social Security law [irrespective of other laws / individual company policies/ nor who publishes the BI510 etc] so genuine retrospective accident reporting is not illegal

When you suspect a rat you should do all you can to prepare for the possible repercussions and simply staying inside the parameters of a company policy may not help in a court

However you must be very careful as such preparation can be seen as making out that a person is not what they are and could lead to another type of claim against you

I would make preparations in-house [recording as you go]as against contacting the various agencies; especially the Social Security as they have different aims and objectives and could even tell the claimant of your preparations as has happened in the past re my personal experience

Posted By Sally
I would suggest that you fill in an F2508 but put on it that there is lack of clarity whether it occurred at work and don't count it in your statistics.

HSE are happy with this as I've used this route before

Posted By martin gray1
Many Thanks to all who have responded.
MG

Posted By martin gray1
Thanks Russell this has helped me add another angle to the letter I am sending him.
Regards
MG

Posted By Rob T
Big problem and not as easy as some people are saying to sort out. The first thing you need to do is investigate the "accident" and make a judgement as to whether that may have caused the injury. Any witnesses (you know - I'm not trying to teach my granny to suck eggs here)?

The message about not reporting it at the time is a huge red herring and a half decent lawyer would drive a horse and cart through that. Muscle and bone injuries can have delayed reactions to trauma (it particularly happens to rugby players by the way and more often than not to front rows - often getting severe symptoms the next day).

You must also be careful if you put pen to paper stating that the GP is incompetent which is in effect what you are saying. Most of us know that GP's often aren't the best people to diagnose in these circumstances but actually stating that can lead to other actions.

I would definately ask your senior management to get a second opinion from an expert Dr in this type of injury (my old firm used a guy in Harley Street) as if it is shown that there may have been an "exaggeration" then the potential payout in a claim could be substantially reduced (far more than the cost of a specialist).

Have you asked the guy what job he did before? Does he play contact sports? Does he do a lot of DIY? etc. etc.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Rob

Posted By Andy Brazier
The assumption here seems to be that an accident must have occurred. However, a bad back is just as likely to be a health issue where identifying a single event as the cause may not be possible. Using stress as an analogy, it is sometimes possible to identify an event (post traumatic stress) but that is the minority of cases. In fact this bad back could actually be caused by stress.

The trouble is there is no simple solution to health problems. It is difficult to show that it is purely work related. If you think the claim is fraudulent, investigate it as such. But beware of saying it cannot be work related because an accident was not reported.