This is a .htm version of the Suffolk NUT Division's leaflet on Injury at Work, available also from your Association of Division Secretary.
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This is a .htm version of the Suffolk NUT Division's leaflet on Injury at Work, available also from your Association of Division Secretary. |
When working at school makes you ill
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When you are off work because of an incident or conditions at school, special considerations apply. You need to be fully informed and to seek advice from the NUT to make sure that you receive everything to which you are entitled.
Industrial Injuries
If you suffer any kind of injury or ill effects because of stress, accident, injury (whether physical or not) arising from your work, the employer has certain duties and you have certain rights. The cause of your illness can be accumulative (e.g. RSI) and is not restricted to tripping, slipping, etc. You may also be suffering from anxiety or feel harassed by someone at work, which is making you ill.
Reporting Hazards
You should not wait until you or someone else starts to suffer before reporting a hazard in your school. Any potential dangers that you can see, including risks of emotional and nervous injury, should be reported on the "incident" forms available from the school office. It is a helpful precaution to take a photocopy of a completed form before handing it in, because they do sometimes go astray, but may be important evidence later.
The forms are open documents and are collated by the County Council. The Head must complete section 6 of the form, indicating what remedial action has been taken to remove the hazard, and send the forms off promptly to the Area Office.
Reporting Incidents
All accidents and incidents of a dangerous or potentially dangerous nature, including verbal assault and the actions of pupils, should be recorded on the incident form by the member of staff affected. If this is not possible, the Head should ensure that the incident is properly recorded by someone else and that you see a copy.
Advice for Headteachers where a member of staff is injured is available separately.
The Headteacher should also ensure that Incidents which have serious effects on the teacher's health, and any incident causing an absence from work of more than three days, is reported to the Health and Safety Executive by the LEA on Form F2508 and the teacher should be given a copy.
Assault
If the injury was caused by an assault, by an adult or child, the Head and LEA should pursue the case against the assailant on your behalf, including contacting the police and parents where appropriate. In the case of assault by adults and older pupils or students, police involvement would nearly always be appropriate. The Union expects victims of assault at work to be protected and for appropriate legal redress to be sought by the employers against the assailant, including appropriate disciplinary action if the injury is caused by a pupil or student.
It is also important for you to be kept fully informed of the action being taken on your behalf. The Union should also be informed so that we can monitor the proper handling of the case.
Harassment and Bullying
If you think your state of health is attributable to, and endangered by, harassment by another employee of the LEA, including the Head, you should seek help from the NUT and follow the Anti-Harassment Policy obtainable either from school or, if this could be embarrassing, from the NUT. If the harassment has caused illness affecting your ability to work, the rest of the advice in this leaflet can still apply.
Absence from work
You should contact the NUT for advice if your injury affects your attendance. Obtain and complete Social Security Form BI 95 available from the DSS or NUT. This is necessary to register your injury as being "industrial", i.e., it was sustained because of your employment. The DSS will normally respond by certifying that your absence is caused by an injury at work.
You may then be entitled to make a claim for damages or compensation to:
Or seek help and advice from Victim Support, if a crime against you was involved.
What happens to my pay?
You should remain on full pay if your absence is due to an "industrial injury". This is particularly important if you have not accrued enough service for full sick pay or if your absences is to be of long duration. It is important to check that the DSS has responded you your form BI 95 and that the Incident Report Form has been filled in, including Part 4 where the Head has to indicate what measures have been taken to remove the hazard. If there is any dispute with the school, DSS or LEA over the origin of the injury, contact the NUT for advice.
Contact with school
While you are off sick, expect regular contact with the school, but not necessarily from the Head. Someone at school should keep you informed about what is going on, any changes are envisaged (especially any which might affect your work), and provide news of events, results and successes, staff movement, etc. If you do not want any such contact, for whatever reason (e.g. doctor's orders), it is up to you to tell the school, preferably in writing.
You should not be expected to do any school work from home while you are off sick and colleagues from school, while asking how you are, should not put any pressure on you to resign, or come in to work, before you are ready.
You can arrange to go into school on occasion, but only as a visitor. You should not participate in any work-related tasks while you are there. (Your employee's insurance and indemnification could be invalidated if you "work" while off sick.) The decision to go in is yours and is to help you: school has to manage without your services while you are ill.
What if I cannot return?
If it is clear that you are not going to be fit to return to your current post within the foreseeable future, contact the NUT to discuss your options. These could include:
In each of these cases, there could also be additional compensation payable, if you are forced to cease your present work due to an industrial injury.
If you take early retirement on health grounds, you will not be able to teach at all thereafter, even on supply. If you go part-time or make other alterations to your work, you might still be entitled to benefits and compensation which might be awarded because of industrial injury.
Check it out!
Whenever industrial injury strikes it is worrying and distressful. It is difficult for Heads and your colleagues always to get it right. This leaflet sets out just the basics of what you can expect. Make sure you contact the NUT to get the best and fullest advice.
Published by Suffolk NUT
1 Gainsborough Road
BURY ST EDMUNDS
IP33 3RX
Tel/FAX: 01284 763980