Serious Accident at work - non contact from company since accident

[Jojo71]

Hello,

my son had a serious accident at work 3 weeks ago requiring immediate surgery to save a limb. He was working his notice and was due to go travelling to spend time a relative who lives the other side of the world. His line manager attended hospital the day after the accident and subsequent surgery and called his manager while he was there to have a conference call. The more senior manager said my son could retract his resignation and it would be approved (I also had the reassurance from this manager on a phone call later that day), to get the ball rolling he was told he needed to complete his serious accident statement straight away and this was done while the line manager was at hospital. My son was not given a copy of this statement and cannot remember what was written as he was heavily medicated due to his injury.

I contacted the union to check that this was normal procedure and was reassured it was normal to take the statement as soon as possible. My son emailed the retraction of his resignation as requested 2 weeks ago. To date no one from the company's HR dept has been in touch. Today his line manager spoke to him and asked if HR had been in touch, to which my son replied no, the manager then stated 'it's not looking good as the final say is down to HR'.

The accident was just that, an accident, there are H&S lessons to be learnt from it to prevent it happening again though.

My son has months of physio ahead but now does not know what is happening and who to turn to.

As an employee, should my son have had some welfare contact from HR?

Is it HR who make the final decision on accepting the retraction or is it the department head?

Is it reasonable for HR to leave it 2 weeks without confirming or rejecting the retraction of resignation? His contract is due to end this week.

Many thanks

[Jojo71]

Hi,

an update to my post.

My son has received an email this morning stating they are not in a position to retreat his resignation due to the current business climate.

My son didn't ask to retract his resignation, his manager said he could if he gave a serious accident statement straight away. He did what was requested and they have now rejected it and his contract will end this week.

Has anybody got any advice what to do as my son is unable to work at the moment due to his injury and he feels tricked and let down by his company.

I have contacted the union to ask that a grievance be raised due to the way the company have handled the situation and have asked the union to obtain a copy of the serious accident statement.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Many thanks

[Retromau5]

For an incident as serious as how you describe, there will most certainly have be an investigation and it will need to be reported to the HSE who will also want to know the details. I can't see this being put down to just being an accident. Employers must have health and safety procedures in place to ensure their employees are in a safe working environment, and any risks involved are assessed and managed correctly. For a person to be injured there will (usually) have been a breach of these procedures or a failure within the procedures themselves. Unfortunately your sons employer may now be looking to limit their liability on this, and that may be why they have decided to not reinstate his employment.

You can report this to the HSE yourself with this link.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-...fety-issue.htm

I think your son could also do with discussing this further with a solicitor who specialises in personal injuries at work.

[ULA]

I am sorry to hear about your son and the injury he sustained at work.

It may be that the senior manager who gave the assurances that if your son rescinded his resignation this would be accepted, may actually not have had the authority to do this, especially given the circumstances.

Given the fact that your son's injury has left him off work (even whilst on notice) for more than 7 days then his employer should have themselves reported this to the HSE and their insurer.

Your son will potentially have a personal injury claim to make against his employer.

[Jojo71]

HI,

many thanks for your responses.

HSE are involved, I think what I was trying to say is that it wasn't a reckless action and no one was aware that what happened would/could happen. My concern is the statement that was taken in hospital when he was in no fit state has been sent to HSE, it was written by someone else and he was asked to sign and he has no memory of what was in it. We are unsure of HSE procedures and what happens now.

It is difficult to say what I'd like to as it would make it identifiable.

There are so many things that need to be done but I am unsure where to begin.

Many thanks