If an occupational accident takes place in your enterprise, you as an employer have a number of obligations concerning the notification about and investigation of the occupational accident.
What is an occupational accident
An occupational accident is the health damage or death of an employee which occurred while performing the work task given by an employer or any other work performed on the authorisation of the employer, during the break included in the working time or other time when acting for the benefit of the employer, and which has a cause-and-effect relationship with the employer or the working environment.
By the degree of severity, an occupational accident shall be classified as a mild or severe occupational accident or an occupational accident leading to death. An occupational accident shall be considered to be severe if it caused severe health damage or a life-threatening condition to an employee.
A doctor must promptly report a fatal occupational accident and an occupational accident resulting in temporary incapacity for work to the Labour Inspectorate in writing or in a format which can be reproduced in writing by submitting a filled notification form. The Labour Inspectorate will forward the report to the employer without delay via the work environment database or in a format which can be reproduced in writing.
In the case of an occupational accident involving a temporary worker, the user undertaking shall notify the Labour Inspectorate about the accident and carrie out the investigaton. The user undertaking is the company to whom the work is being performed and where the accident happened.
How should an employer react in the event of an occupational accident
An employer must promptly report an occupational accident that has caused a life-threatening condition or a fatal occupational accident to the Labour Inspectorate and a fatal accident also to the police.
If an occupational accident results in death or a life-threatening condition (usually a situation where an ambulance is called), the employer must immediately notify the Labour Inspectorate (tel. +372 6406000) and, in the event of a fatal occupational accident, the employer must notify the police by telephone, providing the following information:
- the full name of the employee; contact telephone number;
- the place, date and time of the occupational accident;
- a brief description of the incident;
- the name and address of the employer;
- the first name, surname, title and contact telephone number of the person submitting the notification.
The employer must submit the above information to the Labour Inspectorate as soon as possible via the self-service portal.
Investigation of an occupational accident
As an employer, you are obligated to investigate all occupational accidents by involving a working environment representative or, in his/her absence, the representative of employees.
The investigation of an occupational accident shall be carried out within 10 working days after the occurrence of the occupational accident. The investigation shall end with the preparation of a report.
You shall be required to prepare the report in three copies, one of which shall be kept by you, and submit the other two to the local authority of the Labour Inspectorate and the injured party or the person protecting his/her rights within 3 working days from the completion of the investigation of an occupational accident.
If it appears during the investigation that it is not an occupational investigation, terminate the investigation and prepare a free-form document describing the circumstances of the accident and indicating the reason for the termination of the investigation. The document shall be signed by the representative of the employer and the working environment representative, or in his/her absence, the representative of the employees.
Similarly to the report, the document shall be prepared in three copies, one of which shall be kept by you as an employer; submit the other two to the local authority of the Labour Inspectorate and the injured party or the person protecting his/her rights within 3 working days from the completion of the investigation of an occupational accident.
An occupational accident shall be registered and the relevant data shall be submitted to the working environment specialist, the working environment representative, representative of the employees and the working environment council.
Storage of investigation results
The documents collected and prepared in the course of the investigation of an occupational accident shall be executed as an investigation file of the occupational accident. The data of the investigation of an occupational accident shall be kept for 55 years. On the basis of the results of the investigation, the employer must plan and implement measures to prevent similar accidents at work from happening again.
More information on occupational accident can be found in the Tööelu portal.