I have a situation at work, where an employee has at painful foot. He is a Joiner - He has told us, 3 weeks ago, he thinks he had an accident at work, dropped a piece of wood which landed on his foot, (he wears steel toe capped boots), no injury or pain at the time, therefore did not report it. Last week, his foot hurt so he went to the A&E, it was x-rayed, they have said nothing wrong. Two days later he returns to A&E, x-rayed again, nothing found. He came into work Monday and told his Manager he must have done this at work when he dropped the piece of wood. We have spoken to him, he cannot remember exact date, time or event; cannot remember what type of wood or what he was doing at the time. He has told us he may have a hair line fracture of the metatarsals, although the hospital has not confirmed this. He has also now gone off sick for a minimum of 3 days. We are also aware he is very active person outside of work. My question is: should this be reported as an 'accident at work' by us, even though he cannot remember when, how it happened. also if it is a fracture of the metatarsals this would then be a RIDDOR and accident investigation will be sketchy. Your help would be appreciated, on the way forward with this? Thanks

Ring the joiner up Tell him you are about to send a report to the regulatory authority and want to check a few facts, because lying to the HSE is a criminal offence and you don't want to end up in court.

Personally, I would have his manager conduct an investigation recording all the facts as well as his belief that it happened at work. The investigator may conclude that there is little evidence that it is work related and on balance of probabilities it did not. You may also wish to point out that all accidents and near misses must be reported at the time of the incident, and record that yuo have now made him aware of this. On the RIDDOR - as stated above, without a diagnosis, it is not reportable.

Hardball. No report - and no internal record either. The next step might be a claim........ Send out a reminder to all workers that workplace accidents MUST be reported promptly, with an expectation of same day reporting, or next morning if near end of shift.

I agree that without a proper diagnosis from Hospital or Doctor this is not reportable - unless the injury stops him doing his normal duties for 7 working days, then it becomes reportable. If he has not reported the accident at the time that makes no difference to RIDDOR so I think I would not only be making a riddor with an explanation of why the report may appear late, but also looking at our internal disciplinary procedure as to why it was not reported at the time. I would do this particularly if I thought a claim was on the way to show it was investigated at the earliest possible opportunity.