The Importance of Record Keeping in Workplace Injury
For many businesses, workplace safety procedures are well established, but documentation of those procedures is often overlooked. If an employee makes a workplace injury claim, the absence of records can create significant legal and financial risks. Effective record-keeping is a critical part of complying with Work, Health and Safety (WHS) Standards and risk management.
At Morgan + English, we work with businesses to manage workplace safety risks, ensure WHS compliance and respond to workplace injury claims. Central to an employer’s response to these investigations is proving that the business has a meaningful and effective safety culture. A persuasive suite of documents not only speaks to the business’ approach to safety but can position employers well to navigate a reduction in any common law claims for damages as a consequence of an injury.
Dangers of not documenting
When a workplace injury occurs, documentation is often the key evidence used to determine whether an employer has met their WHS obligations. Without documentation, a business cannot prove that their employees received appropriate safety training.
A lack of documentation can expose employers to several risks. If they cannot prove they complied with obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, they face large fines, prosecutions or improvement notices from regulators such as SafeWork NSW. Without records, it can make it difficult to verify how, when and where an injury occurred, which may lead to delays in insurance and compensation claims.
Additionally, poor record-keeping prevents employers from identifying patterns of workplace hazards, which may increase the risk of future incidents occurring. This can lead to operational and reputational damage to a business.
If there is no record that an employee was properly trained or inducted, a business will struggle to defend a workplace injury claim or allegations of negligence. Consequently, the employer may find it difficult to reduce their liability in respect to damages payable to the employee.
Injury registers and incident reporting
The Fair Work Act 2011 requires employers to keep comprehensive records on employees and keep those records for a minimum of seven years. The records should include:
- Nature of employment
- Start date of employment
- Hours worked
- Rate of pay
- Leave dates
- Employees termination
The best practices for record keeping should focus on:
- Ensuring the documents being retained could provide a clear timeline of the employee’s history with the business from engagement to the end of their employment.
- Ensuring the accuracy and detail of information
- Confidentially storing this information and only sharing with the appropriate persons
- Consistency in system of record keeping
If an employee sustains an injury at work, businesses are required to keep a register. The register must include:
- Name of the injured employee
- Employee’s address
- Age at the time of injury
- Occupation at the time of injury
- the industry in which the employee was engaged at the time of injury
- Time and date of the injury
- Nature of the injury
- Cause of the injury
This information supports compensation investigations, creates a clear timeline of events and reduces the risk of disputes when recollections differ. However, this represents only the bare minimum of what an employer should be doing. Employers who are genuinely risk-averse must take a forensic approach to record keeping, documenting and retaining records of all safe work method statements (SWMS), toolbox talks, safety reviews and risk assessments, mitigation strategies, employee training, notices relating to WHS or safety matters, and procedures issued to employees.
By developing a comprehensive and consistent record-keeping system, an employer can place themselves in a stronger position to reduce the damages an injured employee may seek to claim and demonstrate that the incident was an unfortunate one-off in the context of an otherwise strong and safety-conscious business.
How we can help:
Our Workplace and Conduct team can assist your business to manage workplace risk and ensure that you are well-positioned if a workplace incident occurs.
Firstly, we can work with clients to develop a bespoke critical incident response plan – this is a key in high-risk industries such as mining or businesses involving large animals. Our role in these management systems is to provide the client with a suite of documents that specifies the business’ approach and policies in relation to a WHS incidents, as well as the exact steps an employee needs to follow from the minute an incident occurs, right up to reports and investigations with Safe Work.
At M+E we work alongside workers compensation insurers to coordinate a response to claims for damages and negotiate on behalf of the employer for a reduction in these damages by using the employer’s records to demonstrate and prove the business safety culture and comprehensive incident response processes.
If you would like advice on strengthening your workplace documentation processes or responding to a workplace injury claim, please contact Leah at leah@morganenglish.com.au
