Hi John,

As you cant disprove his version I would record it. I would also carry out a thorough investigation to establish the facts - this might be helpful should he put in a claim for his injuries, it may also uncover the reason why he didnt report it.

Regarding the other issues - what does your Accident/Incident Reporting Procedure state?

Given that he failed to report it for six days a disciplinary investigation may appropriate to establish why it took him so long to report it.

Thanks Gents. However what if I then include this incident on our stats that we submit to our clients and potential clients with tenders and pre-quals which then has an affect on our incident rates which they demand to see. I think you are both quite correct that the incident should be fully investigated etc but I am a bit weary of including it on our stats when there is no real evidence to back the incident up. Any thoughts?

Whilst I accept that the accident was reported late and some form of disciplinary process needs to be gone through if you accept that the accident occured then surely you cannot pick and chose as to wether it forms part of your statistics or not.

On the investigation process we use we record wether the accident was reported at the time of the event and if it wasn't when was it reported and why was it reported late.

Geoff

John, why did he fail to report the accident, was he off work because of it or did he continue to work and reported it six days after as an after thought? I don't think you have much to worry about from a claim point of view as it appears the accident was so minor that he felt no urge to report it until perhaps prompted by someone else. You say there are no witnesses so you can only look at the workplace for obvious problems, if you find none you can simply record the facts and then sit back and wait. Don't worry though the case if one is put forward will probably be so weak it will soon be dismissed. Why people send you off running in all directions is to be honest beyond me and I worked in an industry that operated very strict investigative rules following accidents and rarely had any claims to worry about as the evidence against the company were almost nonexistent.

Should be 'but' not nut.

The issue of 'late' reporting has been discussed here many times. It happens, and it happens for a number of reasons, one of those being that an injury that was at first thought to be very minor has subsequently become more serious, perhaps requiring time off work. On the other hand some late reporting is for more 'dubious' reasons. Whatever; it happens. I 'allow' late reporting but make a point of emphasising the date of the report and the alleged date of the injury. I don't lose a lot of sleep over it!

Alan, you are likely to get a number of different views. If you are new to the job then you need to gain trust and credibility. Over time you will find that the job isn't just about blind adherence to the law, in fact it could be argued that it isn't about that at all (do I hear a sharp intake of breath and cries of horror?). I don't see any problem with trying to 'motivate' staff to report accidents and near misses etc as they happen in order to deal with any unsafe condition, underlying cause etc and hopefully prevent similar accidents or injuries happening to others but I personally wouldn't go down the route of 'threatening' disciplinary action for a failure to do so. IMVHO, over use of the 'disciplinary card' can in our work can serve to alienate your employees. I suggest you emphasise the positive benefits rather than the negative pitfalls!

Despite this, you will still likely get some late reporting. Don't beat people with a stick over it though.

I accept that others may disagree on such an approach.