This advice is taken from the attached posters.  If you are off work sick and need advice, talk to your RMT rep as soon as possible.

Reporting an accident at work

We work in a dangerous environment and accidents happen.  Sometimes these accidents will be immediately serious and there will be no doubt of the impact, other times an incident may seem less serious initially, but could develop later into something that necessitates time off of work.

It is important that any accident or injury is recorded as soon as possible, even if you aren’t immediately aware of an injury that has an impact.

For example, if you trip on a step and your leg aches after, contact your manager and report it.  If you find your broken seat is causing your back to ache, report it to your manager and log the fault. It could be that later on the injury worsens and you find that you need time off work to recuperate.

These reports are important, because an accident at work should not be counted against you. However, if at a later date, maybe months after the incident, you trigger a sickness LDI and there is no clear evidence that you reported the accident when it occurred, management may not discount it and could hand you a sickness warning instead.

Making a report

Here are some things it would be useful to report and to record for yourself straight away after a report has been made:

• Where the accident happened
• What the injury sustained is
• The name of the manager that you spoke to, including the date and time
• That you stated to the manager that you wanted a log of the incident made

A useful way to ensure your own record is kept would be to email it to your RMT Industrial or Health and Safety rep, or to write a log of it for yourself. That way, even if management didn’t properly log your report, you have clear evidence that a report was made.

Return to Work Interview

When you return to work from sickness absence a ‘Return to Work Interview’ will be held. A form is completed detailing the period you were off, any medication, support offered, and most importantly details of the incident.

This is your opportunity to explain what happened. If your injury was caused by an accident in work, ensure that the manager interviewing you clearly records this.  Once the form has been completed ask the manager to print it out, read what is written down and only sign it if you agree with what they have written and all the important information you want recorded has been captured.

If you do not agree with the report, and the manager refuses to amend it, do not sign it.  You will be asked for a memo and should use this as an opportunity to write a full account of what happened as well as explaining that the TM declined to record your account and that this is why you have not signed the interview notes. Again, keep a copy of this memo. You should also advise your rep of this as soon as possible.