The majority of states require prompt notice of the employee's injury be given to the employer. This may be accomplished by giving notice to your supervisor or manager. In some states, this notice may have to be in writing, but oral notice is acceptable in most jurisdictions. Prompt notice varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In Pennsylvania, an employee has three years to report a work injury.
Some jurisdictions give significantly less time to report a work injury.
Once the time period of notice has lapsed, an injured worker may be permanently barred from receiving compensation for his work injury. Most importantly, an injured worker must be wary of the type of conduct which can result in the cancellation of his workers' compensation. For example, an injured worker in Pennsylvania must never act in a way that is interpreted as his refusal to do a job within his medical restrictions as a result of the work injury. Such action will expose him to the possibility of having his worker's compensation payments stopped, even if he cannot return to his pre-injury position due to his work injury. Sometimes work-related injuries aren't due to the conduct of the employer, but are instead due, in whole or in part, to a defective product or machinery, or due to the negligence of a contractor who was working on the site, or due to the negligence of some other entity.