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Pallet C e nt ral • Janu a r y - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 26 43 included on the OSHA Forms; however, if temporary employees are working on your worksite (e.g., through a labor agency) and are directed in their work by company management, any injuries/ illnesses incurred in the course of such work must be listed in the company's OSHA logs and severe injuries must be reported as discussed above. If a third-party contractor is working on site (e.g., performing construction activities) that is not part of the host employer's usual and customary work, any contractor injuries/illnesses are recorded and reported by the contractor. Next, it is essential that the company document and investigate all accidents, regardless of the extent of injury or damage, and promptly report them to the team leader. To the extent possible, all incident investigation reports, especially for those that must be immediately reported to OSHA, should be prepared at the direction of counsel and labeled as "Privileged and Confidential" to avoid inadvertent production. e privilege instruction must be given by counsel before the document is prepared, as documents cannot be privileged retroactively. Photographs, videotapes, and audiotapes can never be privileged and will have to be produced upon request by the government or in litigation. erefore, be cautious about how you document events, and only take photos or record events if directed to do so by a team leader or counsel. ere are myriad types of crises that can occur and impact the employer and its team members. While the staffing, resources, and responses will differ according to the type and severity of the crisis and underlying incident, the following goals are critical in crafting the appropriate response in managing a crisis: • Prevention: Provide safe and healthful workplaces, audit regularly, ensure regulatory compliance. • Detection: Accident investigation (actual and near-miss), monitor injury/illness data for site and industry trends. • Recover y: Regain confidence of affected entities, including team members, customers, vendors, government agencies, and the general public. • Measurement: Post-incident evaluation to remediate root causes of problems (not "quick fix") while being careful not to create documents that will be self-incriminating or constitute an admission against interest by a party opponent in the event of related litigation. How does a company effectively manage and staff its response to a serious injury or crisis? Incident escalation comes into play when the current on-call person (or the responsible incident responder) cannot resolve the incident alone and needs to bring in a more experienced colleague. ere are a variety of approaches to incident investigation and deciding which team members/ leaders are appropriate to handle investigations of certain events. In some cases, third-party investigators including counsel, insurance representatives, engineers, and occupational health and safety consultants may be involved in investigating and documenting adverse events. It is possible that some third parties involved may be subpoenaed and can be required to testify against the company in litigation, so it is essential to be clear on any outside individual's role before sharing information or documents. Care must be taken when sharing privileged documents and information with third-party investigators, as they must not be included in attorney-client privileged communications without the express direction of counsel since this can void any privilege. Privileged communications must not be forwarded outside the organization or shared with other team members without specific instruction. Any document requests or subpoenas from OSHA or outside counsel should be forwarded immediately to your team leader so an appropriate response can be prepared, ideally with the assistance of counsel.

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