Posted By Alan Barthrope Sounds like a fishy tale to me.

Posted By A Olsen The key phrase is "arising out of or in connection with work" when considering if it is reportable.

Posted By Sean Fraser I would say "yes" - the point being that the individual has been injured while on work premises. Even if he supplied all the materials himself (tin, tin opener and Mark One finger / thumb combination) there needs to be a record of the incident and more importantly, what decision was taken to prevent that injury happening again later. Did the cut prevent that individual from returning to their workplace or carrying out their normal duties? If so, it's lost time. No argument there. Legally the time the employee takes off for breaks and meals is their own - but the employer would still have the general duty to provide a safe workplace and safe systems of work. We can't just say they aren't being directly employed at that moment, so it doesn't count. Would that apply to someone who was visiting and not employed but were stuck by a moving object? Would we say "well they're not in our employ so we don't report it"? No. So how can we say employees report during their time on, but not in their time off while they are still on site? Mixed messages cause confusion. Report everything. If the materials to ensure safety are not provided, then perhaps there is an argument that they should be. After all, we all know of equipment and situations that people are oblivious to or simply accept at home, but if that was the same at work . . . I would put this on a par with organisations that provide accomodation for their workforce / clients (I'm thinking of students here). Many providers state that portable electrical equipment belonging to individuals needs to be examined / tested by a competent person before they are used on premises i.e. hair dryers. Obviously these are not being used for work purposes, but the accomodation provider brings these items into their safety system as a precautionary measure - this may be driven by liability insurance concerns but is a valid point. There is an argument that safety awareness at work should not stop there - employers should be providing safety messages that extend into everyday life. Examples of where the distinction between work and personal life are blurred include safe driving and fire safety. If we make a distinction between the two, we are tacitly failing those we serve. I am a libertarian - I believe in personal choice. I am against unwarranted intrusions on privacy and feel that mandatory compulsion should be used only for the personal good and the good of society as a whole. I can't see that recording this incident would be an intrusion on the individual's right to privacy - the new BI510 deals with that possible concern now anyway. And the more we record, the more we know about and more importantly can do something about. Remember, most Lost Time Incidents directly affecting work actually occured outwith it! Our duty is to educate, inform and advise - healthy living, safe behaviours, good communications. These are concepts that don't just apply to work - they apply to everything we do. This is exactly why statistics are currently of little use - everyone applies their own terms to what needs reported and what each report means, so there is no consistent reference that allows for a valid comparison. In many cases, comparison cannot be applied across a single sector, let alone across economic industry as a whole. If we advocate NOT reporting some incidents, then what is the justification for reporting ANY incidents?

Posted By Geoff Burt No

Posted By Ken Lucas Surely we've got bigger fish to fry..... Ken

Posted By Nick Higginson The employee himself should really be disciplined for being such a sprat. Threaten him with the sack and eel soon be singing a different tuna. Kind regards Nick Sorry, they keep coming to me. It's been a hard day. I've been working my roe out driving all over the plaice.

Posted By Steve Sedgwick I do have a record of the accident but I didn’t record it as a works related accident. As it happened he didn’t lose any time, if had had I would still not have reported it under RIDDOR. It was not work related. Since someone suggested we have bigger fish fry, heres another one that occurred in the same mess room, a lot more serious. 4 men sat a table in the mess room preparing to play a game of cards. One man was cutting a grapefruit into 4 with a sharp pointed fruit knife. As he made first cut it squirted across the table on to one man and the man shouted for him to be careful. On making the second cut it squirted the man opposite in the eye. The man grumbled leaned across grabbed a piece of grapefruit and threw in the bin, he leaned over again to get another piece but the man whose grapefruit it was tried to protect the grapefruit by putting his hands in front of it and in doing so the knife punctured the guys lung. A very serious injury requiring a couple of weeks in hospital. That morning (several hours later) the Factory inspector rang to make arrangements to see me on another matter. While he was on the phone I started to explain the above. Before I had chance to finish he said he was already aware of it (someone? had contacted him) and he said "before you aske NO it is not reportable, its not work related". By the way, after police and CID lengthy investigations there were no charges brought even though the injured person pressed vigorously. Both incidents are true and occurred in the same messroom over the last 5 years.

Posted By Lesley McDonald Blimey , what a PLAICE to work !!! (sorry)