It is not uncommon for employees to be injured while performing work. What should an employer do if an accident occurs? What documents should be drawn up? What payments are due to the victims? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. An industrial accident is an event as a result of which an employee was killed or injured while performing work duties or work in the interests of the employer. At the same time, where this event took place - on the territory of the employer or outside it, or during the journey to the place of work or returning from it on the employer's transport, it does not matter.

In life, work injuries are quite common. The origin of such injuries is different, someone behaves inadvertently at the workplace, and someone becomes a victim of an unsettled production process and poor working conditions.

Types and degrees of workplace injuries

Workplace injuries are divided into 2 types - minor and severe injuries.

Severe forms of injury include:

• Painful shock state;
• The blood loss is more than 20.0% of the total blood in the body;
• Coma due to injury;
• Injury, which led to violations of the functionality of the internal vital organs of the human body;
• Fractures of bone tissue that have a complicated shape, or have led to profuse bleeding;
• Articular dislocations;
• Injury to the bones of the spine;
• Traumatism of the cranium, resulting in injury to the cells of the medulla, or to damage to the cerebral arteries;
• Mental type trauma;
• Damage to the arteries of the bloodstream system, which led to profuse bleeding and large blood loss;
• Artificial termination of pregnancy 

Mild injuries include:

• Closed bone fracture;
• Muscle stretching;
• Muscle contusion of moderate severity with a small hematoma;
• Shallow cut on the finger;
• A brain concussion.

Separation of types of work injuries

Injuries at the workplace are divided by the type of injury:

• Mechanical damage;
• Injury caused by exposure to high or very low temperatures;
• Electrical damage;
• Negative effects on the body of chemicals, or vapours of chemical compounds and substances.

Also, injury can be caused by an accident, where there is no fault of either the worker or the company's management.

The cause of injury is established by a special expert commission.

Workplace diseases

Workplace diseases and pathologies are deviations from the healthy functioning of the body, which the employee received as a result of exposure to the body for a long time period that did not meet standards, working conditions.

Severe pathologies include those diseases that have arisen suddenly from negative working conditions, and the disease can also occur with several workers at once, which can be said about mass injuries to the body at the enterprise.

Work injuries are also considered diseases in the acute form of the development of pathology - this is a burn of the visual organ when an employee performed a task on a welding machine, poisoning with vapours of substances that contain chlorine or mercury, as well as vapours of chemical compounds when used in production.

What should the management of the organisation do?

First of all, the injured worker must be provided with first aid, depending on the severity of the injury, an ambulance may need to be called. Upon delivery of the victim to a medical organisation, you need to wait for his examination and obtain a medical report on the nature and severity of the injuries received.

You also need to take the necessary actions to eliminate factors, the impact of which injures people.

Save the environment at the scene of the accident until you start investigating the accident. If this is not possible or may lead to an accident or injury to other people - fix the situation by drawing up a diagram, photographing or filming. Identify the witnesses of the accident - their testimony can play an important role in establishing the causes of the incident.

If the injury is severe, the incident must be reported to the injured worker's relatives and to the appropriate authorities. 

This is followed by paperwork for an industrial injury. It is necessary to issue an order on the creation of a commission to investigate the accident and proceed with the direct investigation.

Commission

A prerequisite for the investigation of a workplace accident is the creation of a commission, whose duties include finding out all the reasons for the incident. According to the legislation, it may include the victim himself in order to exclude the facts of falsification. The number of people depends on the severity of the injury, but the number of representatives must be at least three.

Investigation

After the creation of the commission, a direct investigation of the accident begins. It is found out for what reason the work injury was received, both the victim himself and the witnesses of the incident are interviewed. The authorised persons are obliged to find out who is the culprit of the incident with the aim of subsequent punishment in accordance with the law. The severity of the damage caused must be established.

Make sure be informed. Be aware of all the details of the accident. Talk to your business lawyers, as well as the personal injury lawyers of the employee who suffered the injury. Don't neglect any segment and act on time. 

Conclusion

To avoid troubles in the form of fines, arrest, suspension of the enterprise, the employer must investigate each case of injury at work. On the basis of expert opinions, based on the results of the investigation, a decision will be made: whether the injury was received on work or is it an attempt by an unscrupulous employee to benefit.