What to do in case of an accident at work

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In the event of an accident at work, the employer has a number of obligations which need to be fulfilled. The first one is to provide first aid activities in order to protect the victim and ensure that the subject is transported to the nearest health facility or INAIL clinic.

The injured person must immediately inform the employer of the accident, regardless of the extent of the accident. This phase is very delicate as the transparency and veracity of the information will be relevant when the entrepreneur reports the accident to INAIL.

The employer must then meet the obligations towards the insurance authority, INAIL - National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work.

The second and main fulfilment is the telematic complaint to INAIL. On the point, the discipline differs depending on the duration of the prognosis. The entrepreneur is required to report to INAIL, within two days from when it was known, any accident involving a prognosis greater than three days, not to mention the one in which the event occurred. For any fatal or life-threatening injury, the complaint to INAIL must be made within 24 hours after it has been reported.

The economic coverage of workdays on which the employee does not perform any activity shall be borne by the company or INAIL as appropriate:

  • For the day on which the accident occurs, the remuneration shall be borne entirely by the undertaking;
  • The three days following that of the event are also entirely borne by the employer (we speak of "deficiency period");
  • From the fourth day following that of the accident until returning to work, INAIL shall be responsible for the remuneration.

The complaint can be transmitted through the online application.

For details on the use of the application, please refer to the Annex.

Since December 23rd, 2015 the employer no longer has the obligation to keep the accident register or the related notes. Any register already owned by the employer, and at the time endorsed by the ASL competent for the territory, must be kept at the workplace for at least four years after the last registration and always available to the supervisory bodies.

We have finally reached the end of the accident reporting phase, but it is good to list the four fundamental elements that characterize the event as an accident, in order not to confuse this with other events that are treated differently by the legislation. In order to be able to talk about an accident at work, there must be more than one condition:

  • the event must be traumatic;
  • a link between the event and the work being carried out;
  • the duration of abstention from work;
  • the violent cause. The latter is the criterion of discernment for distinguishing the accident from work from the occupational disease.

For more information, visit the page on the INAIL website, dedicated to the report of injury

Updated on 31/08/2020