IOSH forums home
»
Our public forums
»
OSH discussion forum
»
Accident at Work reported four days after event not by injured person
Rank: Super forum user 
|
I chap hurts his back at work on a friday the next week on a tuesday his collegue comes in and states he actually hurt his back at work, the chap does not come in the following week books a weeks holiday, then has a second week off work sick as he has no hoolidays left, apparently he has hurt his back at home(known to have a back problem) I have informed the principle contractor of the situation but I have not reported this under RIDDOR as yet there has been no accident book filled out. Have I done correct ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
You should arrange to visit the IP at home and ask him what happened. After a detailed discussion you will be able to make the right decision regarding whether to report as RIDDOR or whether it was indeed caused by an accident at work etc.
Apart from anything else, visiting him at home shows the company is interested in his welfare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Agree with above post. Apart from that, if he had an accident at work, why did he no report it on time? have a look at your accident reporting procedures and ascertain if he was aware of them, then look into disciplining the person if he has ignored your procedures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
Almost agree with Trundlebug, can't agree at all with Juan Carlos.
First off, accident book entry is a red herring; there is nothing in RIDDOR which states how an incident has to be communicated to the responsible person; the implication is that the responsible person must report as soon as they are aware. There is also nothing in the regs which says that a report has to be verified. I think this is reportable now, but your report can include all the uncertainties around it.
Discipline is out of the question, in my view; 'awareness' of the reporting procedure is no reflection of the reporting culture -much more important and not down to individual workers,
John
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
It's all a bit confusing this.
Firstly you say that the chap hurts his back at work, which is later confirmed by a colleague.
You then say that " apparently he has hurt his back at home".
Is this the same injury or a different injury?
You qualify this by saying that he is known to have a back problem. In my view this is not relevant to the question of reporting under RIDDOR. It's relevance is that, if he did have a known back problem, your company would have an enhanced duty of care, to ensure that he did not do work that would aggravate his problem.
That brings us back to the original question, did he hurt his back at work as you say in the first sentence? If he did then the question you need to ask is, "Would he have been fit for work if he had not been on holiday?". The fact that he took a holiday again is irrelevant. If the answer is " No he would not have been fit for work," and the injury was sustained at work, then in my opinion it is reportable.
As to the issue of why he did or did not report the "accident", that is an HR issue not a health and safety one and should be dealt with by them in line with your company procedures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
jwk wrote:Almost agree with Trundlebug, can't agree at all with Juan Carlos.
First off, accident book entry is a red herring; there is nothing in RIDDOR which states how an incident has to be communicated to the responsible person; the implication is that the responsible person must report as soon as they are aware. There is also nothing in the regs which says that a report has to be verified. I think this is reportable now, but your report can include all the uncertainties around it.
Discipline is out of the question, in my view; 'awareness' of the reporting procedure is no reflection of the reporting culture -much more important and not down to individual workers,
John Whilst indeed there is nothing in RIDDOR with relevance to the method for reporting an accident to the employer, an accident reporting procedure might be in existence in the company and the individual might have been adequately trained against it. If the person chose to ignore the training given with regards to the accident reporting procedure, I don’t see why you would not be in favour of acting on the fact that your employees did not follow the set procedure. In my opinion the lack of reporting in this instance my actually be down to the individual and not necessarily due to the lack of awareness within the organisation. Certainly where I work, knowing our procedures and how these have been trained, I would take measures to ensure this type of “no reporting accident on time” habit disappears amongst the workforce.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
If the accident is claimed to have happened at work then it must go in your accident book and if he had a week off sick claiming it was because of the accident at work (even though there was a delay) it must be reported under RIDDOR.
Recording and reporting has nothing to do with admission of guilt.
Cover yourselves and follow your normal accident procedures (record, report, investigate) and IF he is lying then that is for him to worry about not you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Juan Carlos, I would act, but not necessarily or immediately with discipline, even if the worker was aware of the procedure. There are a lot of factors which influence whether a person reports or not, and just jumping in heavy-handed in this sort of case is likely to alienate the workforce and could end in an ET. As you say, the lack of reporting may actually be down to the individual, equally it may not be,
John
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
I do agree with that John.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
We tend to advise the use of a formal self-certificate system which clearly asks the IP for his reason for absence and explicitly whether he thought it was due to work.
In 1995 I attended a presentation by the HSE guy who wrote RIDDOR. The duty to report requires injuries to be reported within 10 days. There is no legal duty to report beyond the 10 day deadline and if you were unaware there is a legal defence as you will know. Strange but true as explained by the HSE themselves.
The real issue is not HSE reporting but civil claims of course, and a self-certificate will at least contain a signed statement from the IP concerning the source of his injury.
|
|
|
|
|
|
IOSH forums home
»
Our public forums
»
OSH discussion forum
»
Accident at Work reported four days after event not by injured person
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.