The Labour Ministry publishes cases of breach of the Labor Standard Act and relating laws every month. The report indicates that many companies fail to submit reports on their workers’ death, illness or injuries (“the Worker Casualties Report”). Company names are disclosed when they did not submit the Worker Casualties Report intentionally or made false statements in the report. This article explains easily mistaken points regarding the Worker Casualties Report.
1. What is the Worker Casualties Report?
Under the Industrial Safety and Health Act, employers are required to submit the Worker Casualties Report as part of the measures to prevent recurrence of industrial accidents. There are two types of forms according to the severity of the accident; Form No. 23 is used for cases of accidents resulting in workers’ death or taking four or more days of leave, while Form No. 24 is used if workers took less than four days of leave. Companies are required to submit Form No. 23 without delay, if applicable, whereas Form No. 24 must be submitted by the end of the following month of the quarter in which the incident occurred. The report should be filed with the jurisdictional Labor Standards Office.
2. Points easily misunderstood regarding the Worker Casualties Report
The Worker Casualties Report must be submitted if an industrial accident occurred. This includes cases where relevant workers did not receive benefits of the industrial accident compensation insurance program. Some companies mistakenly believe the report is required only when workers received compensation benefits, but the report is necessary if any situations described in above 1 occurred. Please note that accidents during commutation should not be included in the report, even if the affected worker died or took leave of absence.
In the event a worker dispatched by a staffing agent was involved in an industrial accident, both the dispatching agent and the client company are required to file the report in the following procedure; The client company submits the Worker Casualties Report to the jurisdictional Labor Standards Office and provides a copy to the dispatching agent. The agent also makes the Worker Casualties Report based on the copy and submit it to its jurisdictional Labor Standards Office.
In preparing the Worker Casualties Report for Form No. 23, companies can use the Labour Ministry’s Internet support service, aimed to help business operators complete report forms regarding industrial safety and workers’ health. Although the reports cannot be submitted via the Internet, companies can save the data and reuse it when a similar incident happened.
Reference (Japanese only)
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare “How to submit the Worker Casualties Report”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/roudoukijun/faq/12.html
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Internet support service for creating reports relating to industrial safety and workers’ health
https://www.chohyo-shien.mhlw.go.jp/
