Many workers are uncertain about whether they have to lodge an incident report or notify anyone else like WorkCover if they have been injured at work.
Often, the injured person does not believe that the injury is all that significant and they feel that they will recover in a short period of time.
Problem with not notifying your employer
The problem with not reporting an injury as early as possible is that if that if the injury then deteriorates or doesn’t improve, often the worker has no evidence whatsoever that the injury happened or that it happened at work.
Time and time again we have seen workers who have hurt themselves on a Friday not report the injury until the Monday, thinking that it would come good over the weekend and they wouldn’t need to worry about it.
The employer and WorkCover then assume that the injury occurred over the weekend, not at work, and it causes all sorts of problems for the worker in getting their workers’ compensation claim accepted.
So what is the solution?
Official Incident Reports
The ideal situation would be for all workers to report all injuries of any significance by way of an Incident Report completed on the day of the injury and handed in to the employer.
It is important to keep a copy of the Incident Report for your own records as well, as Incident Reports have a habit of going missing.
An email or text reporting the injury will do
Completing an Incident Report is not always practical but it is critical that at least some form of report is made as soon as possible after the injury occurs.
This can even be in the form of something as simple as an email or text message to your supervisor. Again, keep copies of those emails and text messages for your own records.
