RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

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HandSGuy
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RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

Post by HandSGuy »

Here is one for you lovely H&S folk. Would appreciate any advice or help. Cannot find any clarification on this following the new changes recently to RIDDOR reporting.

So I have a Colleague who suffered a wrist injury back on the 12th December. Colleague received first aid and return to normal duties Monday to Friday and did so for over a month and didn't miss a day work that they were meant to be working. Then on the 13th January they get signed of work for 3 weeks in relation to the injury suffered at work back on the 12th December!! so some 31 days later. now they have had over 7 days consecutive days off work so in this situation is this now RIDDOR reportable??

The new HSE RIDDOR requirements and new change states ''''Where the worker’s injury or condition does not become apparent until some time after the accident, it must be reported as soon as it has prevented them from doing their normal work duties for more than 7 consecutive days.'''''

So, what I am asking is there a deadline of a number of days between the accident/injury to then having the time off due to that injury or is this indefinitely?? if so you could have more and more colleagues taking time of work over 7 days and stating it was from a injury at work from an incident that happened months/years in the past while at work.

any help and advice would be very helpful as I cannot see or find any clear guidance on this.
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Alexis
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Re: RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

Post by Alexis »

Hello HandSGuy and welcome to HSfB. :hello2:

The injury you mention being one of a wrist could very well be something, that immediately after the injury, swelling would occur to protect the area.

If this were the case, then no pain, or very little pain, would be felt by the injured party and they would continue to do work as normal.

However, with this particular injury, I would suggest there will be a delay before the injury swelling abated enough to have a clear x-ray into the real damage that may have been caused by the accident.

I would also say, that your employee would then carry on his normal work and life routines in using the injured wrist, so would not be trying to pull the wool over their employers eyes. It's simply a matter of lack of pain not showing the extent of the injury at the time.

In regards to the deadline .........
HandSGuy wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:29 am
So, what I am asking is there a deadline of a number of days between the accident/injury to then having the time off due to that injury or is this indefinitely?? if so you could have more and more colleagues taking time of work over 7 days and stating it was from a injury at work from an incident that happened months/years in the past while at work.

any help and advice would be very helpful as I cannot see or find any clear guidance on this.
There are certain cases, such as this one, where it is not apparent within the specified RIDDOR Reportable timing, that the injury occurred whilst at work.

Your accident book will show the account of what happened regardless of the timing, so in my opinion, you have a time-line from then to the employee being off work and their sick note results of the injury being work related.

It would be RIDDOR Reportable in my view for this example.

I am sure others will come in with their views.
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Re: RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

Post by HandSGuy »

Thank you so much for your reply and as a company we are certainly not disputing the injury or the colleague integrity reference this, as the accident was reported and documented at the time. it was more a point about the vague information and guidance on deadlines or lack of by the HSE reference reporting of RIDDOR in this situation. It falls outside the 15 days to report which is stated but no further information reference if it falls outside this 15 days in exactly the situation above, so again my point being that technically this would be indefinitely and you would have to RIDDOR all injury or over 7 day absence whether its 6 months or 2 years later if a colleague happens to say that that absence was due to the injury suffered at work at that time even if they didn't take any time of work at the time of incident but now says it was due to the injury suffered a year ago at work which is now causing pain and suffering.

example - colleague hurts their back lifting stock at work. reports and records a manual handling incident at work, has first aid but is able to carry on working and does so for many months but their back is sore. but able to continue normal duties. Then a year later reports to work that due to the back injury suffered 12 months ago at work, it now means it has gradually got worse which means the doctor has signed them off for two weeks due to back pain relating to an injury at work a year ago?? are we really saying that falls under RIDDOR as its an accident at work, its now over 7 days consecutive absent from work. this timescale could be 30 day/3 months/1 year or 5 years it really doesn't matter if we go by the guidelines as this states ''''Where the worker’s injury or condition does not become apparent until some time after the accident, it must be reported as soon as it has prevented them from doing their normal work duties for more than 7 consecutive days.'''''
So what is some time after?? what's the definition? as in my scenario it would mean you would have to report it which just doesn't seem right.
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Re: RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

Post by Alexis »

HandSGuy wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 1:41 pm
''''Where the worker’s injury or condition does not become apparent until some time after the accident, it must be reported as soon as it has prevented them from doing their normal work duties for more than 7 consecutive days.'''''
So what is some time after?? what's the definition? as in my scenario it would mean you would have to report it which just doesn't seem right.
Agree with your thoughts on your scenario above, however the RIDDOR definitions (or ambiguous rulings) are not the actual ones that "define" the injury itself.

The length of time the sufferer experiences thereafter can be unknown, so how can there be a cut and dried length of time placed within the RIDDOR reporting time for these specific scenarios?

And.....just to add to the RIDDOR confusions amongst many H&S personnel, we recently had a post about recent changes to RIDDOR which you may want to peruse albeit not the same as your own scenario. ;)
viewtopic.php?p=373405&hilit=riddor+aft ... rk#p373405
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Re: RIDDOR - Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker

Post by witsd »

HandSGuy wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:29 amany help and advice would be very helpful as I cannot see or find any clear guidance on this.
As always, my advice with anything RIDDOR is to not overthink it. RIDDOR is just the HSE's way of finding out about accidents that might be worth them investigating.

The employee went off due to an injury that happened at work. They were off for more than 7 days. Report it, and then forget about that aspect unless someone contacts you, which they almost certainly will not, for something so minor.

Ultimately, the "7 days" rule is just a filter, so that the work experience kid at the HSE doesn't have a bazillion reports to sift through.
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'
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