At work im growing more and more concerned about employees not reporting accidents as they occur.Can anyone give me advice on the folowing? If an employee phones in on and reports that he isnt coming to work because he hurt his back ,at work, one or two days previosly ,but didn't report, it is it common practice to challenge the fact that the accident actually occured at work? Similarly employees stating that they cant carry out certain tasks because they "hurt themselves yesterday" is getting to be a regular occurance.

Accident Definition: The word accident is derived from the Latin verb accidere, signifying "fall upon, befall, happen, chance." In its most commonly accepted meaning, or in its ordinary or popular sense, the word may be defined as meaning: some sudden and unexpected event taking place without expectation, upon the instant, rather than something that continues, progresses or develops; something happening by chance; something unforeseen, unexpected, unusual, extraordinary, or phenomenal, taking place not according to the usual course of things or events, out of the range of ordinary calculations; that which exists or occurs abnormally, or an uncommon occurrence. The word may be employed as denoting a calamity, casualty, catastrophe, disaster, an undesirable or unfortunate happening; any unexpected personal injury resulting from any unlooked for mishap or occurrence; any unpleasant or unfortunate occurrence that causes injury, loss, suffering, or death; some untoward occurrence aside from the usual course of events. An event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event. It's unclear from your post whether there is a real problem with safety (manual handling?) or whether the general culture is poor regarding a robust absence management strategy and/or its application by management. Either way you have to deal with the issues else it will be ongoing.

Hello there I would certainly challenge the individual concerned - at induction and on various other safety related training all staff in our company are advised that following any incident at work a report must be made in the accident book and forwarded to the H&S Manager for investigation. In particular on our manual handling training we specifically advise people to report what might appear to be minor back injuries at the time as often following a night in bed if you've hurt your back you don't realise how severe the injury is until the next day. Good luck with trying to address this issue - you will always get the odd person who doesn't report things straight away....

For me, everything qualifies for a report, no matter how long after the event, and the investigation will establish if there's anything good, bad, indifferent, fraudulent etc.

Well said G, I wouldnt accept it at face value either. Highly unlikely it was a work related event Pyle, start your investigation immedeately with the mans team and supervisor and record their responses. Ask, what hew was doing that day, did he complain to anyone at the time, any history of back pain, has he played football etc since that day. The other thing is that if he is allowed to be off now it will be weeks before he returns. He obviously wants to withdraw from work. After 7 days he will need a Fit Note from his GP. It will be interesting to see how these new fit notes will affect absence. Steve

Sorry, just realised that none of the above posts did not say that you should`nt investigate, so appologies may be due. I stick by always carrying out an investigation and then reporting if your findings require it.

And does anyone who has posted thus far work for a company whose policy is that an employee who is off sick due to an accident at work receives full pay whilst they are off? Yet another difficulty when accidents are reported "late".