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Corporate Apartment Laceration
Question:
An employee is traveling for work and stays at a corporate apartment. After work one evening, the employee cooks dinner for herself. While handling a knife, she accidentally cuts her finger causing a laceration that is stitched at an urgent care. Is it recordable?
Answer:
NO. This incident meets OSHA’s “home away from home” exception for work travel. The employee was off work for the evening and the dinner preparation was not work-related.
1904.5(b)(6) How do I decide whether an injury or illness is work-related if the employee is on travel status at the time the injury or illness occurs? Injuries and illnesses that occur while an employee is on travel status are work-related if, at the time of the injury or illness, the employee was engaged in work activities "in the interest of the employer." Examples of such activities include travel to and from customer contacts, conducting job tasks, and entertaining or being entertained to transact, discuss, or promote business (work-related entertainment includes only entertainment activities being engaged in at the direction of the employer).
Injuries or illnesses that occur when the employee is on travel status do not have to be recorded if they meet one of the exceptions listed below.