How To Keep A Record Documenting An Unsafe Work Site
Posted on: 21 July 2015
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Not all accidents are unforeseen at a job site. Some accidents you can see coming beforehand if the job site is kept in a dangerous condition. For example, you might be required to work on scaffolding to build a wall, and if the scaffolding doesn't have railings or is not properly stabilized, someone falling off the scaffolding is almost a foregone conclusion if the unsafe conditions aren't corrected. You should document the situation before you or another employee has an accident. The documentation can help an injured employee win their worker's compensation case, and their personal injury lawsuit case. Here is how and what you should document to show management was aware of the adverse conditions and did nothing about it.
Pictures
The beauty of smartphones is that they can take excellent photos without the management team realizing it. You should take photos of all situations that are unsafe - like scaffolding without railings. If you can get pictures of the management team standing on or around the scaffolding, you'll be able to provide compelling evidence they had prior knowledge beforehand that the scaffolding was unsafe.
Record Complaints
You should also keep a record of any and all complaints that you or other employees made to management about the unsafe working conditions. The record should list the specific nature of the complaint, what day and time the complaint was made, who the complaint was made to, and what was done after management received the complaint.
You can follow up the complaints with more pictures on your smartphone. The pictures will be time and date stamped to prove some were taken before the complaint was made to management and that some pictures were made after the complaint. They can also provide compelling evidence that proper actions were not taken after management was officially alerted to the dangerous issues at the job site.
Witnesses
You should make a list of other employees working at the job site who were aware of the problem and of the complaints that were made about the problem. Management may deny they were ever told of any problems and try to put the blame on you for not alerting them that unsafe working conditions were apparent at the job site. If you have other employees who are willing to serve as witnesses when you present your worker's compensation claim, their statements can go a long way to proving management recklessly put you at risk for injury.
These tips could be the difference between and losing a worker's compensation claim. For more information, visit http://www.lshlaw.com.