Accommodation / OSHA logs
HR Support
Assistance is provided with the Reasonable Accommodation Program, OSHA logs, employer policies and the employee handbook, the record that sits next to every claim rather than apart from it.
The three files a claim will always test
A workers' comp claim does not stay inside the claim file. Once it opens, it puts a light on whatever the employer already had written down: whether there was a working Reasonable Accommodation Program before the injury, whether the OSHA log was kept current and accurate, and whether the policies handed to the injured employee on day one actually said what the employer now claims they said. None of that is unique to Washington L&I, it is just true of any process that gets audited after the fact rather than before. The employer who wins the paperwork side of a claim is usually the one who did not have to write it under pressure.
What a reviewed file gives you
Accurate OSHA logs mean the employer is not explaining a gap to an investigator during an inspection that has nothing to do with the current claim. A working Reasonable Accommodation Program means light duty offers and modification requests follow a process instead of getting improvised by whoever answers the phone that day. A handbook that matches what is actually practiced means a policy dispute does not become a second front on top of the claim itself.
BridgeMark — Washington State only. We represent employers, not insurers and not claimants. Call 253-293-8878.
Personnel fileThe record most employers only read closely once it is already in question.
Why this sits next to the claim, not apart from it
Most employers treat HR recordkeeping and workers' comp as two different jobs handled by two different people, if they are handled at all. In practice a claim touches every one of these documents. An OSHA log entry gets pulled to check whether an incident was recorded the way it happened. A handbook clause gets read to see whether the light duty offer followed the employer's own stated process. The Reasonable Accommodation Program, if one exists on paper, either backs up what the employer says it did or contradicts it. None of this is drafted for the first time when a claim opens, it is whatever was already on file, good or bad.
We review and help maintain these three pieces on an ongoing basis rather than producing them from scratch after something has gone wrong, because a policy written under the pressure of an open claim reads differently than one written calmly beforehand, and it is treated differently too.
AccommodationReasonable Accommodation ProgramA written process for accommodation requests and light duty offers, kept current rather than assembled after the first request arrives.
RecordkeepingOSHA logsEntries reviewed for accuracy and completeness before an inspector or a claim reviewer is the one who finds a gap.
DocumentationEmployer policies and the employee handbookLanguage checked against what actually happens on the floor, so the handbook is a record the employer can stand behind, not a document nobody has reread since it was issued.