Gathering with coworkers is excellent, but things can go awry when an employee gets hurt at a holiday party and you have to worry about claims. Workers’ compensation is imperative for businesses in every industry. You might imagine that your company is a low-risk environment and you don’t need insurance for injuries, but the opposite is true. You need workers’ comp coverage because workplace injuries can happen at any moment or place. Unfortunately, an employee can even suffer an injury during your company’s Christmas party. What happens if a staff member gets suffers an injury during a holiday function?
Steps to Take When an Employee Gets Hurt at a Holiday Party
It is undoubtedly a stressful situation, but there are steps you could follow to address the incident and protect your business. Ultimately, employers have a responsibility to the company to prevent any liabilities.
Get Medical Attention in Compliance With Workers’ Compensation Requirements
Most employers must carry workers’ compensation coverage, and most workers’ comp policies require injured employees to seek medical attention. To comply with the terms of your insurance, you need to facilitate the employee’s access to medical attention. If the injury is urgent, you may even need to call an ambulance to transport them to an emergency room. Sometimes, an employee will not recognize the severity of their injury until a while after it occurs. An employer must still help the injured worker seek medical care in these instances.
Document the Incident
Regardless of whether an employee initially requests medical care, you should complete an incident report immediately after the injury. Nobody wants to interrupt holiday fun to fill out these documents. However, it’s a substantial procedure to follow whenever an employee suffers an injury. You must have the documents ready when necessary. Furthermore, this documentation will likely be necessary if a workers’ compensation claim emerges from the incident. You don’t want to submit an incident report that you wrote days or weeks after the injury, so take the time to complete it promptly.
Determine the Details
It is essential to determine the details before filing the workers’ comp claim. Whether the injury is eligible for workers’ comp coverage depends on a few crucial details. Ultimately, you must determine the perimeters. Because a Christmas party does not necessarily constitute work, your insurance might not cover the incident. If the party was a mandatory event, though — or if it was an opportunity for employees to connect with clients — this means that the party may indeed be work. Confirm whether the party occurred during normal work hours and whether your company funded the event to determine your liability.
Contact Your Workers’ Compensation Agent
Even if you suspect your business is not liable for the injury, you should notify your workers’ compensation agent immediately after the incident occurs. Let them know the details of the Christmas party and be honest about the events leading up to the injury. Your insurer may request your incident report or the employee’s medical records to determine whether your insurance covers the injury. Therefore, it would be a good step to take.
About Sine Insurance
At Sine Insurance Group, we are dedicated to providing you with custom-tailored insurance policies to protect your assets. Our comprehensive packages have been expertly crafted to serve St. Louis and the surrounding areas for the past 25 years. For more information about our products, contact us today at (855) 700-0889.