Injury on duty: reporting an IOD under COIDA, and the record the claim rests on

01

What an injury on duty is, and what COIDA requires

Injury on duty, almost always shortened to IOD, is the everyday name for an accident at work under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 130 of 1993 (COIDA). Section 1, as amended in 2022, defines an accident as "an incident or occurrence arising out of and in the course of an employee's employment and resulting in a personal injury, illness, occupational disease or the death of the employee". Section 22(1) gives an employee who meets with such an accident, resulting in disablement or death, the benefits the Act provides, paid through the Compensation Fund. Section 35 takes away the other side of the bargain: an employee cannot sue their employer for damages for an occupational injury, and the employer's liability arises only under the Act.

Two duties start the process:

• The employee tells the employer. Section 38(1) requires written or verbal notice of the accident to be given to the employer "as soon as possible after such accident happened", by the employee or on their behalf. Under section 38(2), failing to do so does not bar a claim if the employer knew of the accident from another source at or about the time.
• The employer reports to the Commissioner. Section 39(1) requires the employer, "within seven days after having received notice of an accident or having learned in some other way that an employee has met with an accident", to report it to the Compensation Commissioner in the prescribed manner. The prescribed form is the Employer's Report of an Accident, the W.Cl.2.

Section 39(7) closes the obvious gap. For the purposes of the report, an accident includes any injury an employee reports and alleges arose out of and in the course of their employment, "irrespective of the fact that in the opinion of the employer" it did not. An employer who doubts a claim still reports it and says why; the Commissioner decides liability. Section 37 makes it an offence to threaten or influence an employee in a way directed at depriving them of their benefits.

The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Act 10 of 2022 came into force largely on 23 January 2026, with some sections on 1 February and 1 April 2026. From 1 April 2026, under section 39(6) as amended, an employer who fails to report under section 39(1) is "liable to a penalty of 10 per cent of the actual or estimated annual earnings of that particular year", and under section 39(8) the Commissioner may impose a penalty equal to the full compensation payable, plus interest from the date of the accident, on an employer who does not report within seven days. The amended section 44 says a right to benefits lapses if the accident is not brought to the Commissioner's attention within three years.

02

What counts as an injury on duty in a building

The test is whether the accident arose out of and in the course of the work, not whether it was serious or whose fault it was. In the buildings cleaning, security and facilities teams look after, the everyday IODs are ordinary ones:

• Slips, trips and falls: a cleaner slipping on a freshly mopped floor in the ablutions, an officer tripping on a broken paving slab on patrol, a fall from a stepladder while changing a light.
• Lifting and handling: a back strained carrying refuse bags to the bin area, a shoulder injured moving furniture for a function.
• Cuts and sharps: broken glass in a bin, a needle in the ablutions, a blade on a floor scraper.
• Chemicals: a splash to the eye from a cleaning product.
• Assault: a security officer hurt at the gate or on patrol. The Fund may ask for an assault questionnaire.
• Transport: section 22(5), as amended, treats conveyance by or on behalf of the employer, for the work, as in the course of employment, and the new section 22(6) says it runs from the employer's designated pick-up point to the drop-off point.

The Act sets no minimum severity for the report. Section 22(2) says no periodical payments are made for temporary disablement lasting three days or less, but the Fund's leaflet for employees says medical expenses will still be paid.

Occupational diseases, such as noise-induced hearing loss, follow a different route: the employer's report is the W.Cl.1, and the Fund's guidance allows 14 days. This guide is about accidents.

On a contracted site, the employer who reports is the one who employs the injured worker. COIDA's definition keeps an employer as the employer while their employee's services are lent or let to someone else. So when a contract cleaner or security officer is hurt at a client's building, their own company reports the IOD; the client's part is to make sure the company hears at once, which belongs in the section 37(2) agreement and the site instructions.

03

The record to make before the shift ends

The seven days run from the moment the employer hears, and the W.Cl.2 asks for the facts, so write them down while the people who saw it are still there. A day later the witness is off shift, the floor has dried and nobody is sure whether it was 13:40 or 14:15. A same-shift record should hold:

1. Who was hurt: full name, the employer they work for, and their job on the site.
2. When: the date and time of the accident, and the time it was reported to a supervisor.
3. Where, exactly: not "the building" but "second-floor ladies' ablutions, by the basins" or "basement parking level 2, ramp to level 1".
4. What they were doing: the task, and whether it was part of their normal work.
5. What happened: in plain words, in order, as the injured person and any witness describe it.
6. The injury: the part of the body and what it looked like, without guessing at a diagnosis.
7. Witnesses: names and contact details, and a short statement from each if they will give one.
8. First aid: what was given and by whom, and where the injured person went next: back to work, home, to a doctor or to hospital.
9. The scene: a photograph of the location, the equipment involved and the condition that caused it: the spill, the broken step, the ladder, the missing warning sign.
10. Who was told: the supervisor, the employer's office, the client's site or facilities manager, with times.

Two cautions. For the most serious accidents, section 24(2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 forbids disturbing the scene or removing anything involved without an inspector's consent, except to prevent a further incident, remove the injured or rescue people: photograph it and leave it. And the record is about what happened, not blame: the Act compensates regardless of fault.

The Compensation Commissioner's 2018 notice on the documents employers must provide for IOD and OD claims says "all documents related to an IOD and OD should be kept safe and must be provided on request". The same-shift record is where those documents start.

04

The W.Cl.2 and the other forms, step by step

The Department of Employment and Labour's Compensation Fund's injury on duty reporting procedures and its leaflet Steps to follow when injured at work set out the paperwork. In order:

1. The employee reports the injury to the employer or supervisor immediately, as section 38 requires.
2. The employer completes the W.Cl.2, the Employer's Report of an Accident. Part B, a copy of Part A, goes with the employee to the doctor, hospital or chiropractor who treats them.
3. The employer reports to the Compensation Fund within seven days, preferably online through the Fund's claims system, CompEasy, or through a labour centre. The Act says seven days; the Fund's employee leaflet says seven working days. Count calendar days and nobody is late.
4. The treating doctor completes the First Medical Report (W.Cl.4), which the employee gives to the employer to send to the Fund.
5. Progress and final medical reports (W.Cl.5) follow, monthly during prolonged treatment and a final one when the condition is stable.
6. The employer completes the Resumption Report (W.Cl.6) as soon as the employee returns to work.

To adjudicate, the Fund's contact centre lists the W.Cl.2, the first medical report, the employee's identity document, a payslip and a letter confirming employment, and asks for a letter explaining any late report. The procedures document is blunt: employers "should not wait for full documentation before reporting an accident".

Registered online, the claim gets its claim number as soon as the mandatory fields are completed and the documents are uploaded, according to the Compensation Fund contact centre's frequently asked questions. Keep copies of everything submitted with the claim, and quote the claim number and the employee's ID number in every query.

Three more duties are easy to miss. Section 39(12): on request, give the employee a copy of the notice sent to the Commissioner. Section 41(2): send a claim received, with the relevant documents, to the Commissioner within 14 days. And section 47(3) makes the employer liable to pay compensation for temporary total disablement, 75% of the employee's monthly earnings at the time of the accident under Schedule 4, for the first three months, and then reclaim it from the Fund. Since 1 April 2026 an employer who fails to pay it is liable to a penalty of double the three months' compensation, plus interest.

05

Injury on duty and the OHS Act: two reports, two records

COIDA is about compensation. The OHS Act is about prevention, and it has its own reporting duty that the same accident can trigger:

• Section 24 of the OHS Act requires an incident in which a person dies, becomes unconscious, loses a limb or part of a limb, or is injured or becomes ill so that they are likely to die, suffer a permanent physical defect or be unable to work for at least 14 days, and certain dangerous occurrences, to be reported to an inspector.
• Regulation 8(1)(a) of the General Administrative Regulations, 2003 says the notice goes to the provincial director within seven days "in the form of WCL1 or WCL 2", so the W.Cl.2 does double duty. Regulation 8(1)(b) adds that a death or a likely death, loss of consciousness, loss of a limb or permanent defect must also be reported "forthwith" by telephone or similar means.
• Regulation 9 requires the employer to keep "a record in the form of Annexure 1" for at least three years of every incident reportable under section 24 and of any other incident in which the person received "medical treatment other than first aid", to have each one investigated within seven days, to enter the findings in Annexure 1, and to have the health and safety committee examine the record at its next meeting.

So a cleaner who cuts a hand badly enough to need stitches is an IOD reported on the W.Cl.2 and an Annexure 1 entry with an investigation, but not a section 24 report unless the injury is likely to keep them off work for 14 days or more. A graze treated with first aid alone needs neither an Annexure 1 entry nor a section 24 report, but COIDA's section 39 has no such threshold: once the employee reports an injury at work, the employer reports it to the Fund. How the investigation is run is covered in incident reporting and investigation.

On a contracted site, the employer carries both duties for their own staff, but the client usually owns the cause: the leaking pipe, the loose handrail, the unlit stairwell. The investigation prevents the next accident only if its finding reaches whoever can fix the building, and somebody checks that it was fixed.

06

Where the IOD record fails, and where SiteClara fits

The W.Cl.2 is rarely the problem; what comes before it is. The accident is mentioned on the radio, the injured cleaner goes home, the supervisor means to write it up tomorrow, and by the time the office hears, the seven days are half gone. Asked how it happened, nobody can say when the ablutions were last checked or whether the broken step had been reported before. The finding is filed, and the step is still broken a month later.

SiteClara records the routine checks and the faults around a building where they happen. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, goes at each location: an ablution block, a stairwell, a plant room, a loading bay. A cleaner, officer or maintenance worker scans it on their own phone, with no app to install, and marks the scheduled check done or says what stopped them; the time and the named person are recorded as it happens. A hazard, such as a spill, a broken step or a loose handrail, can be reported at the location with a photo, and it goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it. The supervisor sees what was due, done and missed, and a daily report goes by email to nominated managers or client contacts. After an accident, that record answers what the investigation asks about the place: when it was last checked and by whom, whether the hazard had been reported, and whether the fix was done.

07

Questions people ask

What qualifies as an injury on duty?

An "incident or occurrence arising out of and in the course of an employee's employment and resulting in a personal injury, illness, occupational disease or the death of the employee", in the words of section 1, as amended in 2022, of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 130 of 1993. The test is the link to the work, not the severity of the injury or whose fault it was; an occupational disease is claimed separately, on the W.Cl.1.

How much do I get paid for injury on duty in South Africa?

The Compensation Fund's leaflet Steps to follow when injured at work says a temporarily unfit employee gets 75% of the salary they earned at the time of the accident, only while they are unfit for duty, and nothing is payable for three days or less off work, though medical expenses are still paid. An employee left permanently disabled is assessed on the Final Medical Report: 30% or less earns a once-off lump sum, and more than 30% a monthly pension for life.

How long does it take to claim injury on duty?

The employer reports within seven days of receiving notice, and 14 days for an occupational disease, with a letter explaining any late report. The Compensation Fund contact centre's frequently asked questions say the Fund takes a maximum of 30 working days to finalise temporary total disablement once it has all the documents, and that it is payable when the employee is booked off for four days or more.

How can I check my IOD claim status online?

The Compensation Fund contact centre's frequently asked questions send claim status follow-ups to the call centre, on 0860 105 350, with the employee's ID number and the claim number to hand. A new claim is registered online on CompEasy, the Fund's claims system, and the Fund writes to the employee and the employer depending on the status of the claim.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

The Act and the 2022 amendments are on gov.za. The Department of Employment and Labour publishes the Fund's procedures and leaflet, the Compensation Fund contact centre's frequently asked questions, and the OHS Act's General Administrative Regulations with the Annexure 1 form.

Before the next accident on site, check that:

• every worker reports any injury at work to their supervisor straight away, however small;
• supervisors write down the facts, witnesses and a photograph of the scene before the shift ends;
• the site instructions say who tells the employer's office and the client, and how fast;
• someone at the office owns the W.Cl.2 and the seven-day deadline, and Part B goes with the employee to the doctor;
• injuries needing more than first aid go into Annexure 1 and are investigated within seven days;
• serious incidents are also reported under section 24 of the OHS Act, and the scene is left undisturbed;
• the cause found by the investigation is reported to whoever can fix it, and somebody checks that it was fixed;
• IOD documents, copies of everything submitted and the claim number are kept safe and can be produced when the Fund asks.