Your ability to maintain a safe work environment hinges on the prompt reporting of workplace accidents and injuries. You need to know when employees are injured on the job as soon as possible so you can take steps to prevent future incidents. Finding out that an employee was injured days, weeks, or even months ago and never reported it can be frustrating.
Can you discipline an employee for not reporting an injury? The answer is not black and white. It depends on the circumstances and your company’s policy. Speak with an expert in occupational health in Wichita, KS, to learn more about your rights and options.
Factors Affecting Whether You Can Discipline an Employee for Failing To Report an Injury
When an employee neglects to report an injury promptly, several adverse consequences can occur. First, your business stays in the dark about the hazard that caused the injury, potentially allowing it to harm other employees and lead to expensive workers’ compensation claims. You could also involuntarily violate OSHA reporting rules by failing to report injuries you didn’t know about.
Late reporting also impacts the injured employee’s ability to receive a workers’ comp payout. This could make it challenging to tie the injury directly to your workplace.
But can you discipline an employee for not reporting an injury? The answer depends on a few factors.
When the Employee Became Aware of the Injury
The date an injury occurred isn’t always the date an employee became aware of the injury. Sometimes, an accident occurs that a worker does not immediately realize the severity of. Over the next few days, their pain worsens, leading them to eventually determine that they were injured at work.
If you recently became aware of work-related injuries that happened weeks or months prior, ask the employee when they became aware of the injury. If they just discovered it within the past few days, you might be unable to fault them for failing to report it.
Any Barriers to Reporting
Why did the employee not report their workplace injury?
- Was the workplace injury reporting process too confusing?
- Did they fear retaliation?
- Did their manager dissuade them from reporting it?
- Did they try to report it, but no one responded to the report?
- Did they want to avoid losing a safety bonus or other benefits tied to being accident-free?
Take the time to understand why the employee felt they should not report an injury that happened on the job. If they faced legitimate barriers to reporting, you might not want to take disciplinary action, as the employee could make a claim against your company for doing so.
Your Company Policy
One of the main reasons an employer would discipline an employee for not reporting an injury is that their behavior violated company policy. Many companies have strict injury reporting policies that require workers to notify a manager of an injury within a specific period (e.g., three days). Violating company policy would be legitimate grounds for taking disciplinary action, such as terminating the worker’s employment.
If your company does not have a written policy for injury reporting, failing to report an injury might not be a valid reason for terminating a worker’s employment.
Disciplining vs. Retaliating: What Type of Disciplinary Action Is Appropriate?
When disciplining employees for not reporting injuries, you must be careful not to take action that could be viewed as retaliation, which involves punishing employees for exercising their rights. For example, firing an employee because they reported an injury or an OSHA violation could be viewed as retaliation, which is unlawful and could open you up to legal claims.
If you want to take disciplinary action against a worker and do not have an injury reporting policy that spells out the consequences of failing to report, consider actions that wouldn’t be considered retaliation. For example, maybe you have a point system that offers employees extra PTO days or other benefits, and employee misconduct leads to lost points.
Also, consider how your disciplinary action might impact future injury reporting. You don’t want to deter other workers from notifying you of injuries promptly.
Seek Assistance With Workplace Safety Compliance Enforcement
Can you discipline an employee for not reporting an injury? The timely reporting of injuries is important to your workplace safety, and disciplinary action might be appropriate in some cases.
WorkSafe can help you prevent and manage work injuries to save money and increase employee productivity. Learn how we can help you today by calling 316-262-8800.