If an accident occurred at work, and you have not encountered such a situation before, then the step-by-step procedure for actions in the first 24 hours, which I will now tell you, can greatly help you.
This algorithm will help you organize your work correctly for the first 24 hours after the accident occurred and not get confused in a difficult situation, in which you need to act quickly and judiciously!
I will also explain the accounting, registration, procedure and timing of investigation of industrial accidents, and provide links to all the necessary details and nuances in additional materials on my blog.
I have a lot of experience, there are plenty of cases, so if anything is not included in the series of articles on this topic, please ask questions in the comments and supplement it with information from your practice.
Accident at work
I’ll start my story with how I interpret what NS is and then I’ll tell you what to do with this sad event.
An industrial accident is an unexpected event or occurrence that results in damage, injury or death to one or more people.
As a rule, an accident occurs due to inattention, negligence, failure to comply with safety regulations, or force majeure.
I suggest you watch a video in which I tell you in detail about the procedure of a labor protection specialist on the first day when an accident occurred at work, and also leave a link to my YouTube channel, where you can learn a lot of useful information about labor protection.
Actions of the employer in case of an accident at work
What should you do first? Procedure in case of an accident at work:
- the first thing to do is to immediately provide first aid to the victim; if you are afraid to take on such responsibility or do not want to cause more harm, call an ambulance;
- look around, assess the situation, if circumstances require it, you need to take the necessary measures to eliminate the emergency situation and protect other employees in order to prevent further injury to people;
- you need to try to leave the situation the same as at the time of the incident, the most important thing is that it does not threaten the health or lives of people;
- take photographs of the scene of the incident, because in the future these photographs will be very useful to you if you are an occupational safety specialist or the head of one of the departments or the entire enterprise. Indeed, in the process of investigation by the National Assembly, they can play an important role.
These are the first gestures that I advise the employer to make if such a precedent arises! The most important thing is not to get confused and follow the instructions.
Where to report an accident at work
How to start filing an accident at work and where to report it?
Be sure to report the incident in the prescribed form to the following authorities within one day:
- social insurance fund (any NS);
- labor inspection (severe, group, fatal accident);
- prosecutor's office (severe, group, fatal NS);
- city administration (severe, group, fatal NS);
- territorial body of trade unions (severe, group, deadly NS);
- relatives of the victims (any NS);
- Rostechnadzor (if the accident occurred at a hazardous production facility);
- Rospotrebnadzor (if an employee is poisoned).
If the accident is mild, then a message about the insured event is sent to the Social Insurance Fund.
Sample report of a minor accident
In all other cases, a notice of NS is prepared in accordance with Resolution No. 73 of October 24, 2002.
Sample notification of an accident
You must understand that it is very important to inform all authorities before the end of 24 hours from the moment of the incident, because otherwise it will be regarded as a concealment.
The fine in this case (Administrative Code Article 15.34):
- for citizens from 300 to 500 rubles;
- for officials from 500 to 1,000 rubles;
- for legal entities from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles.
And plus one more article. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses:
- for officials from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles;
- for individual entrepreneurs from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles;
- for legal entities from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles.
Perhaps the amount of the fine did not scare you, and you think that it’s okay if there is a delay. But imagine that this is just the beginning and you don’t know if everything is in order with the rest of your documents?! If there are more violations, then the amount of the fine may not be reasonable in the end.
There is nothing complicated in drawing up a notice, so don’t put it off for a long time. After all, even the very wording in the law “concealment” speaks for itself. The development of events during the investigation can proceed in the most unpredictable way, and no one wants to be subsequently accused of trying to hide the details of the accident. After all, this could be even worse than the above fines.
Therefore, registration of an industrial accident must be organized in accordance with the letter of the law.
How can you send a message?
Approved accident reporting forms3 do not require original signatures, seals or stamps and can therefore be submitted in any manner. Remember that the date of notification of an accident is the day when the message reaches the addressee. Therefore, it is important not only to send a notice, but also to make sure that the State Tax Inspectorate, the Federal Tax Service of Russia or another department received it.
There are several options for reporting an accident:
- The message is transmitted personally by the employer’s representative to the required government agency. The employer makes two copies of the message - one is transmitted to the government agency, and on the second copy a mark is made on the registration of the incoming document.
- Fax machine. It is advisable to call after sending the message and make sure whether it was received or not. You also need to call because in most budget organizations, incoming phone calls are recorded. In all telephone conversations, clarify who you are talking to and who is receiving the message. This will provide further evidence that you reported the accident.
- Letter by email. Send email with delivery message enabled. Nowadays, most government employees have their own email at their workplace.
- Message read over the phone. It is better to call from a phone with a call recording function. Before starting a conversation, be sure to notify the interlocutor that you are recording the conversation and ask for his position and name.
A sample accident notice looks like this:
Full range of labor protection, civil defense and emergency services
Enter your phone number and I will calculate an estimate for your tasks. Enter without the eight. “Bureau of Ekaterina Vorontsova” – professional solutions to your problems: with high quality and on time!
How to properly prepare a request to a medical institution
Also, within the first 24 hours, you need to prepare a request to a medical organization. Why is it so important to prepare and receive an answer so quickly?!
Everything is clear and transparent. The qualification of the accident, which must be indicated when reporting, will depend on the result in the conclusion. If there are other reasons why, you need to get an answer from the hospital.
The answer will give us an understanding of how to proceed further, what time frame you will have for investigating the accident, who we will include in the commission to investigate the industrial accident, and much more.
In addition, if the accident is severe, group or fatal, the number of notification authorities increases. For example, no one wants to be exposed to the prosecutor’s office once again, and if a medical organization confirms that the NS is mild, then there is no need to notify the prosecutor’s office.
What if he doesn’t confirm? I really don’t want to be late with a message, especially to the prosecutor’s office.
There is no specific form for such a request, but it is prepared in the name of the head of the medical institution with the obligatory clarification of whether the victim is in a state of alcohol, drug or toxic intoxication.
Sample request to hospital
As part of the investigation into the circumstances of the accident, this information must be provided to you even without the consent of the victim or his legal representative, despite the fact that this is a medical confidentiality.
If you have any questions, refer to clause 7, clause 4, article 13 of Federal Law No. 323 “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens.” The hospital must provide you with a report on the nature of your health injuries immediately upon receipt of your request. It should, but often it doesn't!
Once again, this request must be received as soon as possible as it will indicate the severity that you need to include in your accident notice.
Therefore, call, go to the medical facility in person, but urge them to hurry up with the answer. There is no need for a fine or problems with the prosecutor's office.
How to fill out an accident notice
The notice contains seven points. Let us examine in detail how each section is filled out.
Step 1. Indicate the name of the enterprise, type of activity, legal address, telephone number.
Step 2. Give the circumstances, date and time of the incident and the place where the incident occurred.
Step 3. Enter the number of victims.
Step 4. Enter the name, position and age of each victim.
Step 5: Report physical injuries that employees suffered as a result of the incident.
Step 6. Enter information about your full name. and the position of the person who transferred the document to the government agency, as well as the date and time of transfer of the paper. Paragraph 7 contains the same information, only about the person who accepted the document.
This is what a completed sample notification of a group accident in Form 1 looks like.
Occupational accident classification scheme
If a medical institution is delaying issuing a conclusion, and you are running out of time to send a notice, you can pre-classify it as mild or severe.
It is necessary to classify the accident in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Social Health Development No. 160; if it is not on the list of injuries classified as a serious accident, then it should be classified as mild.
Based on what happened, in any case, you can already roughly guess what kind of emergency happened.
If you cannot determine whether an accident is mild or severe, then it is better to send a notice to all authorities, classifying it as severe.
If the received medical report classifies the degree as mild, then a notification letter is sent, again to everyone, with a report from the medical institution attached.
As the saying goes: “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Order on the creation of a commission to investigate an industrial accident
During the first 24 hours after the accident occurred, it is necessary to prepare an order to create a commission to investigate the industrial accident.
The number of commission members must be odd and persons who are directly responsible for ensuring compliance with labor protection requirements at the facility where the accident occurred are not included in the commission.
Sample order to create a commission to investigate a minor accident
If you already know that the accident will be classified as minor, then the composition of the commission should consist of at least three people and be as follows:
1. The chairman is the head or his deputy head of the enterprise.
2. The members of the commission should include:
- employer representatives;
- a labor protection specialist or a person appointed responsible for organizing labor protection work;
- a representative of the elected body of the primary trade union organization or a similar body of workers;
- Occupational Safety and Health Commissioner;
- when investigating an accident with the insured - representatives of the Social Insurance Fund at the place of registration.
In this case, the investigation period for an industrial accident is 3 days.
If the accident is qualified as a group accident (two or more employees), a serious or fatal accident, then the composition of the commission must be formed of at least 5 people and be as follows:
1. The chairman is a representative of the State Labor Inspectorate, Rostekhnadzor (if the incident occurred at a hazardous production facility), Rospotrebnadzor (if acute poisoning occurred), etc.
2. The members of the commission should include:
- employer representatives;
- occupational safety specialist (if any);
- representative of the city administration;
- representative of the territorial body of trade unions;
- representative of the Social Insurance Fund;
- representative of Rostekhnadzor (if the incident occurred at a hazardous production facility);
- representative of Rospotrebnadzor (if acute poisoning has occurred).
Sample order to create a commission to investigate a group, serious or fatal accident
The investigation in this case lasts 15 days. There are opportunities to extend the investigation, but more on this in future articles.
In order to find out who to register as members of the commission, you need to prepare and send out requests.
Sample form of a request to send a representative to investigate an industrial accident
Our country is terribly bureaucratic, so we send it by e-mail with mandatory delivery by Russian Post.
For example, I always sent a request letter by e-mail and then called with a request to check my mail for a speedy response.
Because in Art. 229 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation has the following wording: “immediately forms a commission.” If the order is prepared later than 24 hours have passed since the accident occurred, then this will already be a violation. Therefore, the employer can be fined.
We save all correspondence, sent and received documentation in one common folder. We don’t throw anything away, everything can be useful in the future.
Conclusion on work on the first day and what next
On the first day after an accident occurred at work, a lot of work needs to be done, they need to be compiled correctly and nothing should be forgotten.
Above, I tried not to miss anything and told what the registration of an industrial accident looks like and the employer’s actions in the first 24 hours when an accident occurs at the enterprise.
Therefore, we study the algorithm of work for the first day and do not relax, there will be even more work later.
I will introduce you to the following articles on how to build your work further, depending on the NS:
- Investigation of a minor accident: algorithm, terms of investigation, composition of the commission.
- Investigation of a group industrial accident. Subtleties of the investigation.
- Algorithm for investigating a serious accident at work: procedure, documents.
I wish you efficient and safe work!
If you have any difficulties completing the accident investigation documents, please contact us.
Which form to use
The form is approved at the legislative level and is presented in Form 1. The paper is filled out for a single and group accident. The document states:
- Business name;
- location and legal address;
- Employer's name;
- circumstances of the incident: date and time, what work the employee performed;
- number of casualties or deaths;
- Full name and profession of all victims;
- Full name and position of the enterprise employee who transmits the document, date and time of transmission;
- Full name and position of the organization employee who received the document, date and time of receipt.
