Investigation of an industrial accident: procedure, creation of a commission, timing and features of the procedure

Emergency situations with consequences in the form of injuries among personnel at enterprises in some cases are production-related, but in others they are not. An accident investigation is required to determine this. This is a legislative requirement for all economic entities in the Russian Federation after an incident that affects the health of the employee or employees. Failure to comply with this requirement is punishable by a fine and other sanctions.

First, let's figure out what exactly should be classified as accidents according to Art. 227 Labor Code of the Russian Federation:

• various body injuries received while using machinery, tools or vehicles, or inflicted by other people;
• thermal injuries associated with exposure to high or low temperatures;
• insect or animal bites;
• injuries from explosions, building collapses, accidents, natural disasters;
• electric shock;
• radiation exposure;
• heat stroke or frostbite;
• drowning;
• other injuries associated with external factors.

When is a work accident considered a work injury?

An accident at work and a work injury are different concepts. There are a number of conditions to consider the resulting damage to health as an industrial injury:

• time of incident - happened during working hours, on the way from or to work (on official vehicles), on business trips and official trips, as well as during rest between shifts for rotation workers;
• place of incident - on the territory of the enterprise or in another territory where the employee was sent by management. Industrial accidents additionally include road accidents if the case involves the transport of an enterprise or the personal transport of an employee, which is used by him as a work vehicle on the basis of a depreciation agreement for this vehicle, as well as if an employment contract has been concluded with the employee or there are signs labor relations, as well as if the victim participated in the employer’s production activities;
• availability of sick leave with code 04, which indicates the loss of one day of working capacity.

An accident that occurs to an employee on the way to or from work, if he was walking or using public transport, is not considered an industrial accident.

What is the composition of the commission for an accident that occurred on foreign territory?

The employee who suffered the accident may have been in the territory controlled by another employer, department or in another country during the accident. Possible options for creating commissions in such situations are:

• The employee is on a business trip with another employer and participates in its activities. In this case, the commission is created by the employer on whose territory the incident occurred, but a representative of the employee’s direct employer must be invited to join it. Moreover, his lateness to the start of the commission’s work is not grounds for postponing its work.
• An employee performs work assigned to him by his employer on the premises of another employer. The investigation will be carried out by the employee's employer, and a representative of the other employer will be involved in the investigation if necessary. But if the territory of another employer is specially provided for the employee to perform work on behalf of his employer, then the involvement of the other employer in the work of the commission becomes mandatory.
• The accident occurred at a part-time place of work. The employer for whom the employee works under these conditions will investigate the incident. At the place of main work, information will be transferred to them only upon receipt of the employee’s written consent to this.
• The transport incident is investigated by the employer, but with the obligatory involvement in this procedure of materials received by the relevant supervisory authorities, investigators, investigators and the owner of the transport.
• The incident occurred with an employee sent to a CIS member state. The principles for forming an investigation commission will correspond to the procedure adopted in this state (Article 3 of the Agreement on the procedure for investigating accidents at work, concluded in Moscow on December 9, 1994). If the employee has concluded an employment agreement to work on the territory of this state, then the commission must be formed according to the rules of the state in which the agreement was signed (Article 8 of the same Agreement dated 12/09/1994).

• The incident occurred with an employee sent to a member state of the EurAsEC. The principles of the investigation are based on the rules of the state in which the accident occurred and in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement (Article 3 of the Agreement on the Investigation of Accidents at Work, ratified in Minsk in 2013). The agreement provides for the form of the act for documenting the incident.

For the Russian Federation, this Agreement entered into force on October 21, 2020.

Procedure for dealing with accidents at work

According to Article 214 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an emergency or incident in an organization should be immediately reported to management. This is done either by the victim himself or by eyewitnesses. The law does not provide for a specific form of appeal.

The procedure for an employee to act in the event of an injury is usually prescribed in the enterprise’s occupational safety documentation, or more precisely, in the instructions for employees, which he should have been familiar with before being allowed to work. The employer, having learned about the accident, is obliged to take a number of measures specified in Article 228 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation:

• Provide first aid to the victim of an industrial accident. To do this, the enterprise must have a medical post or a first aid kit equipped with all the necessary equipment.
• If necessary, deliver the victim to the hospital, and delivery must be carried out by official transport or other type of transport at the expense of the enterprise.
• Inform the relatives of the victim about what happened if he cannot do this himself, if there was a serious or fatal accident.
• If, due to an accident, an emergency or emergency situation has arisen, you need to do everything possible to eliminate it. To do this, you should evacuate all workers from the affected area, eliminate the accident on your own, or call special services (for example, the Ministry of Emergency Situations).
• Keep the situation at the scene unchanged. This will be required during further investigation of the accident. If it is impossible to keep everything as is, you need to record the details of the incident as completely as possible in diagrams, photos and videos.
• Send information about the incident to the appropriate government agencies, as well as take any other measures required for a timely investigation of the industrial accident.
• Urgently create a commission to investigate an industrial accident in accordance with all legally approved standards. To do this, you can invite a third-party organization as an assistant, providing this service under a contract. However, such a company must have appropriate accreditation. Like, for example, the “Center for Occupational Safety and Health”.

Accidents: definitions, classification, causes

1. Basic definitions

Federal Law No. 125 of June 24, 1998 calls an industrial accident an event that led to a deterioration in the health of the insured and:

— loss of working capacity (partially or completely, temporarily or permanently); — the emergence of a need to perform work in another profession or specialty (temporarily or permanently); or to death.

Work-related injuries are injuries that occur:

- when the victim performs a production task at an enterprise, organization or outside its territory; — while in the transport of the insured organization (for example, on the way to work, home).

This Law refers only to employees insured by the Fund. However, the procedure for investigating accidents at work established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation applies to all persons working under the instructions or orders of employers, regardless of the availability of insurance.

″How to determine who is to blame for an accident?

First of all, the accident investigation commission identifies persons who violated state labor protection requirements. But the investigative authorities, and ultimately the court, determine the persons guilty of certain offenses. Watch the video answering this question:

2. How to classify accidents?

Accidents may be related or not related to production

2.1 Accidents are associated with production. These are the NS that occurred:

- when carrying out orders issued by employers during working or non-working hours; — at the time of servicing (cleaning, lubrication, other maintenance) of production equipment, compliance with the internal rules established in the organization; - during the transportation of workers by transport that belongs to the employer or is used in his interests (there is an agreement with the owner of this transport); - on a business trip, when working on a rotational basis, on a ship and under other similar circumstances; — in the course of work designed to prevent accidents, accidents, disasters at the employer’s facilities or mitigate their consequences;

2.2 Accidents are not associated with production.

This is injury or death that occurred solely due to alcohol intoxication or toxic poisoning and during illegal actions. This category includes suicides, as well as deaths that are caused by exacerbations of common diseases.

Accidents that do not belong to these categories (occurred during non-working hours when employees were not performing work in the interests of employers) are classified as domestic.

In the event of injury to an employee insured by the Fund, the National Insurance Fund is the insurance company. The first 2 days of incapacity for work under these NS are paid by the enterprise, the rest - by the Fund.

″What should an occupational safety specialist do if an employee does not report a work-related injury in a timely manner?

The employee did not report the accident in a timely manner, and after some time the organization receives a sick leave note with the indication “Occupational injury” on it. According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer is obliged to conduct an investigation of the accident. In this case, the employee must write a statement to the accident investigation commission or to the employer. The statement must indicate the nature of the injury, the date and time it was received and the fact that the employee did not report this incident in a timely manner. Based on the application, a commission is formed. According to the Labor Code, the investigation of the NS is carried out within 1 month from the date of receipt of the application.

3. Causes of accidents at work

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation identifies the main causes of accidents at work:

- falling while moving, from a height; - loss of integrity of buildings and structures, which is accompanied by falling and scattering of parts and pieces; — illegal actions of others; — influence of extreme temperatures (frostbite, burns); — asphyxia (entry into the respiratory tract of bulk materials, water, their compression); — contact with biological objects; — action of current; — influence of radiation, etc.

Where to report workplace accidents

Minor accidents do not require the involvement of government regulatory organizations. When investigating a group accident (with two or more people), as well as in the event of severe consequences of the accident or death, the employer is obliged to send a Notice of the Accident to the following organizations and authorities within one day:

• State Labor Inspectorate of the subject of the Russian Federation where the incident occurred;
• administration of the locality in which the organization is registered.
• the prosecutor's office located at the scene of the accident;
• social insurance fund;
• the employer of a third party organization, if the victim is a contracted employee;
• local division of the executive authority controlling the high-risk facility, if there is one (Rostechnadzor);
• territorial branch of the trade union.

Special cases:

• In the event of an emergency on a ship, the captain is obliged to immediately inform the employer (owner of the ship), and if the ship is located outside the Russian Federation, then the Russian consulate. After this, the manager acts in accordance with the above procedure at the place of registration of the vessel.
• If an accident on a ship is associated with a possible leak of radiation (an accident with a ship's nuclear installation, during the transportation of nuclear waste or materials), it is necessary to additionally notify the state supervisory authorities in the field of radiation safety.
• In the event of acute poisoning of an employee in any organization, the local office of Rospotrebnadzor should be additionally notified.
• If the accident was not immediately serious or fatal, but became so later, the employer is obliged to notify all relevant authorities within three days after receiving notification of changes in the condition of his employee or employees.

Results

To investigate any serious accident, a commission consisting of at least three people is formed.
The commission must include a labor protection specialist. If there are 5 or more people injured, the incident results in severe injuries or death, a representative of the federal executive body responsible for compliance with labor laws is included in the commission. Accidents that occur on the territory of another state are investigated in accordance with the provisions in force on its territory. When investigating any incident, it is necessary to use all possible materials to accurately determine the causes of the incident. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

Who is on the commission investigating the accident?

In the event of a tragedy at work, the employer must immediately create a commission of three or more people. The composition of such a commission is indicated in Art. 229 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It includes the person responsible for labor safety at the enterprise and a representative of the trade union (representative of the workforce). The commission is headed by the employer himself or his representative.

During the investigation of serious accidents (including group ones), in which one or more workers were seriously injured or died, the commission also includes a state labor inspector (he also heads the commission), a representative of the administration, a representative of the territorial association of trade union organizations, FSS and a representative of the Committee on Labor and Employment. The person responsible for labor safety at the site where the emergency occurred, that is, the immediate supervisor, cannot be a member of this commission.

The victim (or his representative), if desired, can take part in the investigation of an industrial accident, but not as part of the commission. If an employee is killed, his relatives and the investigative committee can insist on participation in the investigation, which will necessarily require the provision of investigation materials before initiating a criminal case. In addition, interested parties have the right to review all investigation materials upon request.

What documents will you need to prepare?

In order not to violate the legally established procedure for documenting the investigation of an industrial accident, the set of documents must include three types of papers:

• notification (report of an accident, measures taken, etc.);
• organizational (order to create a commission, change the timing of the investigation, etc.);
• descriptive and recording (acts, conclusions, examinations).

Each industrial accident is specific and individual, so the set of documents may vary in volume and include both mandatory and additional (supporting) papers.

The first group of documents is of an informative and notification nature. It will not be possible to avoid their registration - such a need is enshrined in law.

Organizational documents are internal company orders required to organize the process of investigating an industrial accident.

The third group of documents is the most diverse in type and significantly exceeds the first two in volume. The central place in this group is occupied by the act of an accident at work (form N-1, used in accordance with the current recommendations of the Social Insurance Fund when registering accidents at work, as well as on the basis of the letter of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated October 27, 2017 No. 15-3/B- 2862).

Important! An act in form N-1 is drawn up if the employee has lost his ability to work, is transferred to another job for medical reasons, or died as a result of an industrial accident (Article 230 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

We will tell you what additional documents you will need to collect in the next section.

Samples of various documents for registering an accident are presented in ConsultantPlus. Sign up for a free trial subscription and download the document you need.

Time frames for investigating industrial accidents

The regulatory time frame for the investigation is prescribed in Article 229.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Most finish their review within three days of the tragedy. In the event of a group industrial accident, when victims are seriously injured or die, the period may increase to 15 calendar days.

If the disability or death of the victim did not occur immediately, but after some time, then the investigation is reclassified from mild to severe (fatal) and the period is extended to 15 calendar days, in accordance with the established deadlines for such cases.

If information about an industrial accident was hidden from the employer, then such an incident is called hidden. It is investigated based on a written statement from the victim within a month from the date of its receipt.

The chairman of the commission may extend the investigation period by 15 days if some additional verification is needed or it is necessary to wait for a medical report.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION MATERIALS INCLUDE:

• order to create a commission to investigate the accident;
• act on an industrial accident in the prescribed form (according to Appendix No. 1 of the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated October 24, 2002 N 73);
• protocol for examining the scene of the incident, and, if necessary, photo and video materials, plans, sketches, diagrams;
• documents characterizing the state of the workplace, the presence of dangerous and harmful production factors;
• extracts from logs of registration of labor safety briefings and protocols for checking the knowledge of victims of labor protection requirements; personal cards for recording the issuance of personal protective equipment;
• protocols of interviews with eyewitnesses of the accident and officials, explanations of the victims;
• expert opinions of specialists, results of technical calculations, laboratory studies and tests;
• a medical report on the nature and severity of the damage caused to the victim’s health, or the cause of his death, whether the victim was in a state of alcohol, narcotic or other toxic intoxication at the time of the accident;
• other documents at the discretion of the commission.

Each industrial ACCIDENT registered in the prescribed manner is registered by the employer in the register of industrial accidents in the prescribed form.

Complete training in the field of “Occupational Safety and Health” at the Academy of Safety. The period for receiving the certificate is 3 days. Sending original documents by registered mail by Russian Post is FREE OF CHARGE.