Injuries at work

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Injuries at work

Here is a reminder about “old” law: namely the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, 1995 (RIDDOR)

This article will be useful for any employer, supervisor or employee! Every individual within a workplace has a responsibility to both themselves and to others. This duty of care should be taken seriously and where possible, everything should be done in advance to prevent accidents from happening. Nevertheless, they do happen.

In addition to knowing what to do when an injury occurs, new legislation dictates that anyone "in control" of a workplace / charity organisation / school etc, must carry out a 'fire assessment'. The old 'fire certificates' are now invalid. This process might also help to reduce potential injuries.

When an accident happens

An employee in your Company gets injured at work. You give the best treatment and attention to him and everything becomes is fine as he carries on as before. Despite all your good intentions, you might have violated the law! Yes, it is mandatory in many cases to 'report' injuries too.

RIDDOR came into force on 1 April 1996. It requires the reporting of work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences. The Act applies to all work related activities, but not to all work related incidents.

The objective of the act is to enable the enforcing authorities to identify where and how risks arise and to investigate serious accidents so as to prevent them from occurring in the future and thus providing a safer work environment for you. The enforcing authorities can then help and advise you on preventive action to reduce injury, ill health and accidental loss.

As an employer, self-employed person or anyone else in control of work premises, you have a duty under RIDDOR. For most businesses a reportable accident, dangerous occurrence or case of disease is a comparatively rare event. The list below is what the law has described as reportable incidents:

Deaths;
Major injuries;
Accidents resulting in 3 days off from work;
Diseases;
Dangerous occurrences.

You are required to report if a person is killed or suffers a major injury. That includes a member of the public or visitor, and not only an employee. Reportable major injuries as described by RIDDOR include:

Fracture other than to fingers, thumbs or toes;
Amputation;
Dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine;
Loss of sight - temporary or permanent;
Chemical or hot metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury to the eye;
Injury resulting from an electric shock or electrical burn;
Any other injury requiring admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
Acute illness requiring medical treatment, or loss of consciousness arising from absorption of any substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin.

Furthermore, if a doctor notifies you that your employee suffers from a reportable work-related disease then RIDDOR makes it obligatory for you to:

Report it to the enforcing authority;
Keep a record, including the date and method of reporting; the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved and a brief description of the nature of the event or disease.

Where shall I report to?

As well as reporting anything significant to the supervisor, all accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences may be reported to the Incident Contact Centre. The Contact Centre was established on 1st April 2001 as a single point of contact for receiving all incidents from all parts of the country.

We advise that you should set up your own Health, Safety and Environment Management System. This would enable you to achieve best practice, offering continuous Health, Safety and Environmental performance in compliance with the guidelines set by RIDDOR. Perhaps more importantly, it would enable you to be seen to comply. As with so many compliance issues, what matters is that, if asked, you can produce the documentation to show that you complied. It is a sad fact that our society seems to be more and more concerned with the letter of law and less concerned with real “on the ground” workforce safety and efficiency.

If by chance you find some error of law or fact in any Net Lawman information page, do please tell us. We should also welcome your suggestions for new subjects for information pages. These notes: