Experiencing a workplace accident can put you in a very stressful situation. Potentially preventing you from working for a significant period of time and thus risking your job and financial stability. To make matters even worse, when people have an accident at work they often don’t know what they can or should do in order to ameliorate the consequences.
Because of this, it’s important to understand what the proper procedures are and exactly what you should do in such a situation. So, no matter if you’ve experienced a workplace accident or if you just want to play it safe. Today we are going to take a look at everything you ever wanted to know about accidents at work.
Don’t neglect your injury
The first and the most important thing to remember is that your health and well-being should always come first. If you are injured at work make sure you seek adequate medical care immediately. Either from the on-site first aid kit or by going to the hospital. Even if your injuries seem minor at first, it would still be a wise idea to go and see a doctor just in case.
Remember that getting compensation for your injury is not worth the trouble if you aren’t there to receive it. Once you’ve taken care of yourself and made sure you are going to be fine. Then you can start thinking about the potential consequences are and what your next steps should be.
Report your accident
The next step is to make sure your accident has been noted and recorded. If you were working alone when the accident happened, start by informing your colleagues as well as your manager about what has transpired. This is a crucial step that will help you a lot later down the line if you decide to make a claim for compensation due to a personal injury.
First off, this will mean that your co-workers will be able to confirm that the accident occurred. Also, your manager should follow protocol and report the accident to the proper authorities and note it in the accident book. All of this information will be of great use to you but it will also make sure that your co-workers don’t suffer the same accident. You making them more alert and, at the same time, prompting your employer to make the work environment safer.
Make sure you have evidence
Once the accident is noted you should try to take photos and videos of the place where the accident occurred as well as of the consequences it had. This will serve as vital physical evidence that will be extremely compelling and that will ultimately help you get your compensation. You can never have too much evidence so try and document every single detail of the accident. This will prove even more helpful in case your employer tries to fix the spot where it happened and discredit your claims.
However, you should also be careful if your employer doesn’t permit you to use your phone on the site in order not to get needlessly penalized for it. On top of this, you should try to keep a diary of all of the symptoms that have occurred because of your injury. This is crucial as more often than not the hospital staff doesn’t record every single detail of your injury and all of the following consequences.
Keep a record of all of your expenses
Finally, you should try and keep a record of all of your expenses that occurred because of the accident. The purpose of compensation in an accident at work claim is to put you back in the position you would have been in if the accident hadn’t happened. So, if you’ve had to miss paychecks because of your accident or if you had additional costs because of the injury, your primary goal should be to get that money back.
It’s also important to note that settling all of the legal and technical aspects of a compensation claim can take a longer period of time than may be expected. Because of this, making sure you keep track of everything that has increased your costs will be vital. To make sure you don’t permanently lose out on any of the
Conclusion
Workplace accidents can be a terrible experience for anyone, especially if the process of getting your compensation drags on for a long period of time. With that being said, being prepared and knowing what to do in such a situation will help you make the whole thing a lot quicker and more importantly a lot less stressful.
The information listed here should cover the basics about workplace accident. But it’s important to note that in situations such as these it’s always better to hire professional help that will smooth out the entire process.
