An injured employee should give the employer notice of the accident as soon as possible if he sustains a work injury or contracts an occupational disease prescribed in the Employees' Compensation Ordinance. Failure to give prompt notice may jeopardize and delay the claim of employees’ compensation. Notice may be given orally or in writing to the employer or to the employee’s supervisor. The employer is presumed to have had notice of an accident if the employee dies on the employer’s premises.

According to section 15 of the Ordinance, an employer must notify the Commissioner for Labour of any work accident or prescribed occupational disease by Form 2, Form 2A or Form 2B, as the case may be, irrespective of whether the accident or the occupational disease gives rise to any liability to pay compensation. Work injury cases in general should be reported in 14 days' time while the fatal cases in 7 days' time.

If the employer is not aware of the happening of the accident within the respective periods, he must notify the Commissioner for Labour within 7 or 14 days, as the case may be, after the accident came to his knowledge.

If the injured employee has doubt as to whether his employer has reported the work injury or the prescribed occupational disease to the Commissioner for Labour, he could notify the Employees’ Compensation Division of the Labour Department. Its branch offices handle employees’ compensation claims according to the area where the work injury occurred, or according to the place of employment for prescribed occupational disease. The office, upon receipt of the notification of the employee, will ask the employer in writing to report the work injury or the prescribed occupational disease according to the requirement of the Ordinance, if the notification from the employer has not yet been received.