Posted By Swis HI DPK, It seems to be a 'confusing' situation but it happens occasionallly at our work places. The only thing you can do now is to carry out the investigation routinely. Recording all the relevent details such as; 1) details of the accident/incident 2) details of all injured party 3) details of any witnesses 4) possible cause of the accident/incident 5) details of corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence of the accident/incident. 6) was there any supervisor present (if not why not) You must ensure that a systematic approach is taken to log and investigate the incident. Rrecord any past incidents this individual has been involved in. Review his/her training records. Log any re-fresher training provided to this individual. This way you can trasfer the burden of negligence to individual (to a certain extent though). This information will prove useful in your/organisation's defence.

Posted By Ron Hunter Get the "IP" to describe the incident in a closed room away from distractions and well removed from the locus. THEN take them to the locus and ask them to describe it again. Contrast and compare...............?

Posted By Kieran J Duignan DPK If you are fairly convinced that the company has safeguarded the employee, a useful perspective lies in asking what you plan to advise senior management they should defend if the claim of the employee is challenged. One way of clearing the ground may be to commission an independent report from a chartered safety practitioner with experience as an expert witness, so your company will have an independent report to present as evidence to the employee and his/her advisers as a basis for fair negotiation rather than litigation. If it's a sound report that supports your employer, even it the case goes to a court hearing, the claimant may face quite a challenge to support his/her claim. Basically, it's an issue of establishing facts without bias.

Posted By John Richards Before you put down any SUSPICIONS about what you THINK may be behind the accidents in WRITING you need to ensure that your WRITTEN suspicions are secure. ie: they need to have legal privilege invoked. How you do that is up to you. Any accident report you make will be available to the opposing party at a later date if you do not. Putting in writing that you think the accident "victim" is faking it and lying is, effectively, putting a noose around your neck.

Posted By Steph Hi Who is acting on the company's behalf for the current claim? Have you advised them? Perhaps they (insurer / solicitor) could take over, or advise you in, the investigation. Could there be a link with the current claim and this one? Limited details for obvious reasons - in a former role I investigated an alleged incident where the employee claimed an accident and injury - similarly there were no witnesses and the method of reporting was vague and hence caused some delay in investigating. I had doubts about this alleged incident and its validity and involved HR and senior management, and historical issues then came to light. In essence the investigation concluded that there was no evidence to substantiate the claim, risk assessments and procedures were not complied with, and the IP had been working in a dangerous manner. The IP refuted this and claimed for PI. I handed the case over to our insurer who subsequently discovered history, and progressed their investigation which resulted in the claim being withdrawn and more. The investigation did take a lot of time and effort and I had to really dig deep with senior management, but my 'gut feeling' was right. It is possible that you cannot find anything to substantiate your doubts; but you need to be able to demonstrate and be confident that you have investigated fairly and professionally. In my case the IP reported the incident to the HSE who investigated and agreed with me. Tolley's book on Accident Investigation is really good, if you need a reference and checklists. I had many doubts