Fell down flight of stairs accident at work advice please!

ldavies_3

Then nothing to lose or gain by signing..

In my workplace, as long as its reported, it doesnt matter if the person signs at all

bethg2009

I'm still none the wiser

bethg2009

bethg2009 wrote: »

I'm still none the wiser

Forgive me though I have had several smacks to the head :mad:

Savvy_Spender_South

bethg2009 wrote: »

I'm still none the wiser

Can we try to fix this Beth?

Why are you confused hun? basically, every accident gets reported, and that means someone has to write down what happened.

Once written, the person(s) involved can agree or disagree. If they agree, a signature is usually a good indicator of this.

If they disagree, the management would like to know whats up.

In this case, it looks like you are hanging on to the words "if she doesn't sign" the key question is:

Do you agree to the account written? if yes, sign it. If no, get it amended then sign it, is that clear? hope that has helped Beth.;)

bethg2009

I do agree with the report, I just can't help but feel I was being "persuaded" without words not to sign it however.

ldavies_3

If you agree, then sign the blooming paper lol

TwistedPsycho

Woooooooooooooooooo. Hang on a second.

Something has not been made clear. YOU have not completed the entry in the accident book. Make sure you read it thoroughly before signing it as right now, you do not know what it says. If you believe that a failing of the employer (you mentioned a loose handrail) is contributary, then the accident book should reflect that.

I think that it a duty of care of the employee under the H&SW Act to report accidents in a "timely" manner, in the same way that employers should do what they can to prevent accidents.

bethg2009

Think I'll be going to doctors in the morning, there's blood in my water - not good sign.

dickydonkin

TwistedPsycho wrote: »

Woooooooooooooooooo. Hang on a second.

Something has not been made clear. YOU have not completed the entry in the accident book. Make sure you read it thoroughly before signing it as right now, you do not know what it says. If you believe that a failing of the employer (you mentioned a loose handrail) is contributary, then the accident book should reflect that.

I think that it a duty of care of the employee under the H&SW Act to report accidents in a "timely" manner, in the same way that employers should do what they can to prevent accidents.

What has been made clear is that the OP has quoted "I do agree with the report" therefore there is no reason why a report that is factually correct should not be signed - irrespective of who compiled it.

Furthermore, there is no specific stipulation in the Health & Safety at Work Act that requires an employee to report an accident in a 'timely' or any other manner for that matter.

However, under section 7 (b) it requires employees to fulfil any requirement or duty imposed by the employer and co-operate with the employer to fulfil their legal requirements.

It is possible that the company has an established accident reporting procedure as part of their H&S management system (a vital requirement) and part of that procedure may require an employee who has been involved in an accident or near miss to report such incidents as per company requirements.

The OP should really have reported the incident as soon as possible.

I never had any issues with employees signing accident reports as I would always give them the opportunity to read them and ensure everything was in order - and I would ALWAYS give them a copy.

There was nothing sinister about it, but that was an element of the accident reporting procedure.

Remember - accident reports work both ways - should it transpire that the incident has left some long term damage - your accident report is evidence that the event actually took place and I suspect the person compiling the report will also have signed the document.

Treadway1

I think I can see something that others may not have done here. I dont think that the OP is in any way asking whether he/she should claim.

What I think they're getting at (and I think if we all put ourselves in their postition, we'd think the same) is that after having the accident someone has give them the accident book to sign which is normal enough, but because it seems so normal (because of course you would normally just sign it, right) it then seems strange that they're given the option not to sign it if they dont want to. Further to this, then, the H&S bod comes looking for the OP later chasing them up on their decision as to whether they will sign it or not as the managers want to know. Again, I think anyone would be a little suspicious if their employer started sending people to ask questions re this type of incident. Surely you could all understand why that would start somebody wondering what the management might be thinking.

Yes, there may be a number of H&S experts out there who know the very letter of the law and exactly what should and shouldnt be done and when, but lets bring it back down to a personal level. Someone is simply asking if there is anything strange about signing (or not signing) the accident book AS THEY DO NOT KNOW THEMSELVES.

Unfortunately, there are too many on here that are immediately ready to clamber up the moral high ground to sound off about how loathesome our compensation culture has become (and I know there are many ready to grab cash where they can for any minor knock, so can also understand why it might get peoples back up), but really, all the OP wanted was a simple answer as to whether he/she should be concerned about their bosses intentions.

Now, lets all just try and get along shall we.