Health and Safety for Beginners Forums

We had an employee who says they had an accident at work on Friday morning. They dropped a piece of shelving onto their toe. The person did not report the incident or seek medical attention and remained at work for the duration of their shift. The facility is not open and nobody works weekends. The first we were made aware was on Monday when the employee said they had injured themselves and that the pain had got so bad over the weekend that they attended a medical centre on Monday and they had a broken toe. They were not fully signed off and the fitness note said they may be fit to work with altered hours, amended duties etc. The role the employee performs could have been performed with a broken toe however his supervisor reacted by allowing the person to take the week off. The Monday they advised us was their first working day after the incident. They returned to work the following Monday and continued to work as normal.

I know the incident is not reportable due to the broken toe, but is the 7 day rule applicable. So two questions really;
1) Excluding the Friday of the injury, is Day 1 the first Saturday or the Monday they notified us?
2) Also given they could have performed their work but were allowed the normal week off, the 7th day was the Friday that week. Do the days stop when they returned to work or when they were able to work eg any day that week or the 2nd weekend.

I hope I've explained the timelines correctly and do not have an issue with the fact an accident was not evidenced. I just need advice on the days?

Hi Kris and welcome to the forums

Were there any witnesses?
Some industries and gender stereotypes are particularly prone to MMR or 'Monday Morning Reporting' of such injuries; usually obtained after work on the Friday, in such incidents as falling over whilst out-on-the-town, playing Footie with the Lads on Saturday afternoon, etc, etc.

The HSE state :

Accidents must be reported where they result in an employee or self-employed person being away from work, or unable to perform their normal work duties, for more than seven consecutive days as the result of their injury. This seven day period does not include the day of the accident, but does include weekends and rest days. The report must be made within 15 days of the accident.

I would say that it is reportable, irrespective of the 'signing off' since the requirement is in respect of normal duties, not any form of light duties. Day 1 is the Saturday.

I would report the facts, including the instance of it being MMR and do not attempt to waffle or squirm on the reporting, since that just guarantees HSE interest. Keep to the facts, including if there were witnesses or not, explain any investigation that has been carried out, such as why the individual wasn't wearing toe protection whilst moving shelving.
Should they have asked for help, did they know what they were doing etc.
Have staff been re-briefed about reporting all incidents whether they want 1st Aid or not?

Better to report it and hope the HSE discount it as insignificant, than have them find out you didn't report and encourage them to drop in under those circumstances.

Did we not conclude on a fairly recent thread that the 7 day rule only applies if the individual goes off work immediately, or would that not be the case as 'day zero' isn't counted as part of the seven?

Either way, I do agree that the best course of action is to report it with all the info you have, and make sure that the staff involved understand their duty to report accidents and staff absences due to accidents to ensure the process runs smoothly in future.

witsd wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2017 11:29 am Did we not conclude on a fairly recent thread that the 7 day rule only applies if the individual goes off work immediately, or would that not be the case as 'day zero' isn't counted as part of the seven?

Either way, I do agree that the best course of action is to report it with all the info you have, and make sure that the staff involved understand their duty to report accidents and staff absences due to accidents to ensure the process runs smoothly in future.

Hi Kris. Welcome aboard. I think this is the recent post witsd is referring to. http://www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk/fo ... le#p337521