A solicitors letter shows up stating a previous employee (who no longer works for the company) has injured themselves while performing a task (attempting a manual handling lift that requires a two man lift) and is pursuing a damages claim

So I have the usual requests can I see their induction, training records, risk assessments etc, in a letter 5 months after the alleged incident.

What perplexes me is that the accident was never reported to anyone at site, none of the supervisors, no managers, no witnesses,  nada, but the advice is to settle on it?

“Employees have a duty to take care of their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by your actions at work. Workers must co-operate with employers and co-workers to help everyone meet their legal requirements”

Seriously if there is nothing in the accident book , and no one knew about it why would a company be advised to settle?

The claimant could of course say that he did tell his supervisor and get into an argument about whether he did or didn’t

I’m after advice around making sure employees know their responsibilities for reporting accidents.- The site does have a accident reporting policy but I’ve since found that there is no signed acknowledgement or training records about reporting an accident at work -  so that’s a gap in itself.

Is it usual to capture this signature at an induction? That’s what I’ve done in the past -  I’m not suggesting it would save us from a claim I just want people to report accidents in the correct manner so we can act on them and not find out we have an issue 5 months later via a solicitors letter.

The IP has left the business now- but in past places I have worked I’ve seen employees getting warnings for not reporting accidents but without having the a signature against the accident reporting procedure it’s always an option to act dumb over it.

I guess what I asking is without signatures are you pretty much screwed when it comes to claims.

Thanks

Most claims are framed as "pain and suffering" and loss of earnings - what did the employees attendance record show immediately following the supposed date up until leaving? Were they actually at work on the day (had that one before and a swift retraction of claim when we said we would pursue fraud)?

Regarding the main thrust behind your post what would a signature prove? All it indicates is that someone made a mark upon a piece of paper. To be the item you are eluding to it would need independent witnessing (persons to state they saw the employee making the mark). Even then a lawyer would argue it was given under duress with no comprehension of what the action meant (because obviously you would not allow someone to work unless they signed ergo the duress).

Even the trend to on-line training assumes it connects a single employee to the message forgetting all that can be proved is a machine logged in to a session - watching to the end does not mean the content was viewed, answering a set of questions can be completed by trial and error until the necessary score is received.

Personally I sign as attendance only, not that "I have received and understood".

Always had accident reporting as a topic on induction but as these hit recipients with a lot of information in a short period of time how to report an accident is generally not on the employees watch list of pay, working hours, holidays.

Firstly - Don't take it personally, there is no suggestion that you haven't operated correctly. 

The sad thing is that these days it costs so much to defend low cost cases that most insurance companies will settle for a small(ish) sum out of court to protect their profit margin rather than waste a lot of money to fight the case.  The good news is that this protects your premium from big increases and ensures that you and your insurance company live to fight another day.  So just shrug and mark it down to experience.

I initially started my post with "This type of stuff really bugs me!" but deleted it - so nice to see "used to wind me up no end" 

Originally Posted by: Holliday42333

Originally Posted by: Mersey

What perplexes me is that the accident was never reported to anyone at site, none of the supervisors, no managers, no witnesses,  nada, but the advice is to settle on it?

Its been quite a few years since I had to deal with claims (thank goodness and long may it continue) but this kind of thing used to wind me up no end.

An employee when I worked for the government put in a claim for an injury sustained when a heavy box fell from a shelf behind the driver’s seat of a Landy going cross country. They insisted that accident had happened and but they had not reported it. Fortunately the government does not carry insurance but claims are dealt with by the Treasury Solicitor. They wanted to settle the claim using the same sort of argument that Holiday’s loss adjuster had put forward but we checked it out and were able to establish to not one of our vehicles had a shelf behind the driver’s seat: they all had a bulkhead right up against the front seats. The claimant had apparently got us mixed up with another company he had worked for, who may or may not have gone into liquidation!