As a business owner, you understandably have an obligation to protect your company. At the same time, you have a legal and moral obligation to protect your employees at the same time. In the event that one of your employees is injured on the job, there are certain procedures you will need to follow in response to their injury claim. Let us briefly look at four key areas that you should be aware of now.
File a Detailed Report
As soon as you ensure that the employee receives medical attention, you will need to file your own report as an employer. The employee will have the right to file his or her own claim, but you also have the obligation to detail your account of what happened. The issue here is not to assign blame during the report, but rather to simply write down as much as you can remember about the incident. Naturally, you may not have been there, so detailing any witness accounts is wise at this stage as well.
Sit Down With Employee and Lawyer
If the employee engages the services of a worker’s compensation lawyer, such as one from Oxner + Permar, LLC, you should be willing to sit down with both parties to help resolve any claims. You will likely be asked for quite a bit of documentation at this point. It is in your best interest to go ahead and hand these over as long as you do not see any regulations against privacy being violated. If you are asked for something that you are not certain about, feel free to contact your worker’s compensation insurance provider for assistance.
Bring the Employee When Able and Ready
Remember that existing law precludes employers from preventing employees who have been injured on the job from returning to their position when they are ready and able. When your employee has sufficiently recovered and is ready to return to work, you should welcome him or her back and move on from the situation.
Safeguard Against Future Issues
Learn from the experience. Any injury suffered on the job should be seen as a learning experience. Look for ways that such an event can be avoided in the future and then take any corrective measures that you find to be necessary. This will be beneficial to you and your company in the long run. If you run into any issue during the claim process, consider consulting with an attorney.
These are some of the ways that you should respond in the event that an employee files an injury claim. Be courteous, follow the law, and work to be as cooperative as possible. This will go a long ways towards maintaining goodwill between employer and employee.
