Report a Pennsylvania Work Injury: Keep a Clear Record of the Communication

Report a Pennsylvania work injury or work-related illness to your employer promptly, and keep an accurate record of that communication. DLI’s injured-worker guide says to identify the work connection, date and place. The recordkeeping method below helps preserve what you communicated; it does not calculate your notice deadline or establish that legal notice was sufficient.

In this article

Record the report itself

Write down when you reported, who received the report and that person’s role. Identify the method: an in-person conversation, an employer system, a message or another channel. If you have a copy or confirmation, retain it with your note.

Describe what you actually communicated about the work event or concern. Separate the date of the event from the date of the report. If the condition developed over time or the timing is uncertain, record that uncertainty instead of assigning an invented single injury date.

For an oral report, make a dated note of your recollection. Identify when you wrote the note so it is not mistaken for a document made during the conversation. Preserve any contemporaneous message or acknowledgment separately.

Keep reporting and receipt separate

A useful private record can have three entries: communication sent or conversation held; acknowledgment received, if any; and a question that remains unresolved. That avoids treating an attempted message as confirmed receipt or treating an acknowledgment as an acceptance of benefits.

If a recipient says someone else handles reports, note the direction given and what you did next. If your employer has reporting instructions, retain a copy of the instructions you used. This page does not choose a reporting channel for every workplace.

Preserve corrections transparently

If you later notice an error, keep the original communication and explain the correction separately. State what was inaccurate, the corrected information and the basis for it. Do not silently rewrite an earlier record or add details you cannot support.

If you remember a detail only later, label it as a later recollection. A factual gap is more useful than a confident but unsupported statement that may be repeated across the file.

Understand what this record does not decide

DLI distinguishes an employee’s report to the employer from the employer’s First Report of Injury and from accepting or denying a claim. Those are different stages and records. A supervisor’s acknowledgment is not, by itself, the same thing as an insurer’s written decision or a judge’s order.

Questions about timeliness or sufficiency require the facts and applicable Pennsylvania law. DLI’s pamphlet is general guidance and expressly does not provide official interpretations. Seek individual review of a disputed or delayed report rather than relying on this article to calculate a last day.

The practical result should be a clear account of what was reported, to whom, when, through which channel and what response you have. Keep it with the original evidence of the communication, not as a replacement for that evidence.

Sources and scope

Checked 2026-11-09. These sources explain the Pennsylvania background identified below. The organizing methods and suggested questions on this page are editorial guidance, not filing requirements.

• PA DLI: Workers’ Compensation & the Injured Worker — How do I get the benefits?.
• 34 Pa. Code § 121.5: Reporting injuries to the Bureau — 34 Pa. Code § 121.5(a)-(c). Source amendment effective August 4, 2007.

Related reading: An Employer Incident Report and a WC Claim Are Different Records; What Is a Pennsylvania First Report of Injury?; Record What You Know, What You Remember and What Remains Uncertain. Browse the getting organized topic.