Accidents at work during the holiday season also happen. This may be facilitated by a reduced staffing of workstations and thus an increase in the duties at the disposal of the employer of employees. Eyewitnesses are an important source of information. However, what if the witness of the event goes on holiday as planned?

July-September is an intensive time of using holiday leaves. The period of holidays can be a time of temporary organizational problems for both employers and employees. The work must be done for the workplace to function uninterrupted. In such a case, the employer may distribute the work of absent employees to persons who remain at its disposal. In such a situation, it must be remembered that it does not generate overtime work. Unfortunately, the increased pace of work, employees temporarily transferred to a new position, lack of experience, all this can affect the safety of performed duties. In such conditions, it is not difficult to get injured at work.

When an incident occurs, despite the holiday season, it is the employer’s duty to take the necessary action. Must, among others appoint a follow-up team. An accident at work can complicate vacation plans for both the members of the post-accident team and the injured party. If the latter, due to an injury, receives a certificate of temporary incapacity for work, the leave will have to be adjusted in relation to the original intentions.

It will also be possible to postpone the leave in the case of members of the post-accident team, especially in the case of more serious accidents, which are additionally investigated by labor inspectors and the prosecutor’s office.

The role of the post-accident team is to immediately – after receiving information about the accident – start to determine the circumstances and causes of the accident. In this case, it is necessary to cooperate not only with the victim, but also with the witnesses of the accident, whose accounts are often much more objective than those provided by the victims. The victim, for obvious reasons, is interested in qualifying the event as an accident at work.

What if the person who witnessed the accident went on a pre-planned holiday after the accident, with the full approval of the employer? Is there a justification for recalling the employee from leave in this case?

Referring to the above case, it should be recognized that there is indeed a justification for recalling the witness from leave resulting from the need to conduct the proceedings on time. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the reasons for recalling an employee from leave may only be circumstances unforeseen at the time of commencement of the leave. If the accident occurred before the witness’ leave, and the post-accident team knew that the person had witnessed the event, then there is no reason to recall the employee who witnessed the event from leave.

Only if the fact that the employee was a witness was revealed after the start of the leave, then there would be a basis for recalling the employee from the leave on the grounds that it was not known before the start of the leave.

If there are a few days left until the end of your holiday, then you can „risk” collecting information from a witness of the accident after returning from holiday leave. However, if the leave has only just begun and it is to last, for example, several weeks, then it would be reasonable to recall the witness of the accident from leave. Assuming, of course, that there is a case when the information that a given person was a witness was revealed only after the start of the leave.

The dismissal of an employee from a holiday leave is a last resort.

Source:https://www.portalbhp.pl/blog/odwolanie-swiadka-wypadku-z-urlopu-czy-to-mozwane-10548.html#

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.