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Watering Company Flowers
Question: An office employee asks if she can plant some flowers near the entry way to the company's office, is granted permission, and months later trips and injures her ankle while watering the plants during her morning break. Her doctor prescribes her 800 mg ibuprofen taken three times daily. Is it recordable?
Answer: YES. All incidents that occur in the work environment are presumed work-related unless an exception is provided. Even breaks are considered part of the normal workday for recordkeeping purposes. The regular workday occurs between the commute in and the commute home and anywhere else an employee is as a condition of their employment. The prescription of ibuprofen is considered medical treatment beyond first aid.
1904.5(a): Basic requirement. You must consider an injury or illness to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness. Work-relatedness is presumed for injuries and illnesses resulting from events or exposures occurring in the work environment, unless an exception in ยง1904.5(b)(2) specifically applies
Letter of Interpretation: ...Section 1904.5(b)(2)(v) for injuries that occur in the work environment but are solely due to personal tasks. For the "personal tasks" exception to apply, the injury or illness must 1) be solely the result of the employee doing personal tasks (unrelated to their employment) and 2) occur outside of the employee's assigned working hours.