The employer in a claim: the injury report, the duty to cooperate and return to work
A glazing company learns that a glazier’s wrist injury required medical attention. The project manager starts a modified-duty list but has not checked whether the employer’s injury report went in or which employment duties apply.
Employers must report qualifying injuries or diseases within 72 hours when the worker misses work or needs medical attention beyond workplace first aid. Serious-incident reporting is a separate immediate obligation. Employers and workers must cooperate in safe, timely return to work. The employment-maintenance duty generally concerns employers regularly employing 20 or more workers and an injured worker employed continuously for at least a year before injury. Check the current application and actual claim; company size alone is not the whole test.
Check the requirement against the actual work
- Assign and verify the employer report. Identify the person making the required report and preserve the actual information received, including its timing. Confirm the submission rather than assuming the first-aid entry or worker’s report completes it. Send missing details through the proper follow-up route. Do not wait for every account to agree before the company checks and meets its reporting obligation.
- Check the applicable duties against real facts. Give the responsible company adviser or claim contact accurate workforce and employment information. Record the answer about the actual case and any further question. Avoid deciding eligibility from the number of people on one project or a subcontractor list. Keep other applicable employment and accommodation questions with the people authorized to address them.
- Describe candidate work in usable detail. List actual tasks, locations, tools, hours and demands for the worker and responsible return-to-work people to consider. Separate desk-based material tracking from lifting, carrying and site access. A label such as light duties is not enough to assess a real assignment. Do not diagnose restrictions or prescribe exercises from this article.
- Agree and communicate the reviewed arrangement. Work with the worker and appropriate claim contacts to establish suitable duties and a clear plan. Ask about unresolved ability or task concerns through that process. Identify who supervises the assignment and how the worker reports a difficulty. Make the actual arrangements known to those responsible without broadcasting medical information to the crew.
- Check progress and retain changes. Keep the report confirmation, plan version, relevant communications and review actions together with appropriate access. Record how actual duties differ from the proposed list and return problems to the responsible people. Revise arrangements through that process. A completed first day does not establish that every later task, shift or site change is suitable.
Common mistakes
- Treating first-aid paperwork as the employer report.
- Checking only company size for the maintenance duty.
- Calling an undefined task light work.
Checklist
Keep the claim actions distinct
- Report timing and actual submission confirmed.
- Applicable duties checked against employment facts.
- Proposed tasks and demands described.
- Reviewed plan and supervisor instructions communicated.
- Progress, problems and revisions retained.
Check your understanding
The company has drafted modified duties. Does that mean its employer-report requirement is complete?
