On behalf of Castrodale Law, LLC on Thursday, August 23, 2018.
Receiving an injury while on the job should be taken very seriously. Employees in every state including Ohio are required to have a healthy work environment that is reasonably safe. However, even in what could be considered a safe area, an injury can occur.
Suffering an injury in the workplace is very common. American workers are injured on the job every seven seconds. That comes to 12,300 a day or 4,500,000 injuries a year. Workplace injuries commonly come from a fall, contact with objects or directly from equipment.
Once an injury occurs, both the employer and worker will have a set of responsibilities to follow. Both should be on top of the problem and work until there is a mutual resolution. After an injury, here are some the responsibilities both the worker and employer should follow.
Receive medical help immediately
As an employee, you should have every injury attended to. Medical attention should be called even if you received a small cut. Handle the situation in a professional manner just as you would expect your employer will. If you fail to mention a small injury, the act that caused the injury can potentially happen again with dramatically different results.
Make sure an injury report is submitted
After the injury has been attended to, the employee needs to fill out the required injury report paperwork. The employer can provide the report to the employee if needed. If the employer does not immediately provide it, an employee can request it. An injured employee has the right to file a claim with their workers’ insurance company for compensation. For the employee, it is a good idea to document all the information you can in case there is a future lawsuit. Speak with other employees who witnessed the accident and write down their observations. You should also take photos of where the accident occurred and keep them in your files.
Prevent future injuries
Once the paperwork is complete, both the employee and employer should take a proactive approach to address how they can prevent the injury from happening again in the future. Both should learn why the accident happened and what preventative measures will be put into place to keep it from happening again. Other employees will likely appreciate this follow-up by both parties especially if they are feeling unsafe.
Injuries in the workplace are inevitable. It is important to know what to do after an accident has occurred. By making sure everything is handled properly and within the protocols of the insurance company, it may make a tough situation a little easier to get through.