For some records, such as insurance cover, longer periods may be advisable, especially if you consider a future claim by an employee for a workplace injury, say, 10 years ago.

In the case where the person has not worked for a while due to a workplace injury, work-hardening can be used to build strength.

This was the case when safety engineering grew in the early 1900s to combat the high workplace injury and fatality rates.

During 2006-2007 about 30 million working days were lost due to work-related ill health, and 6 million due to workplace injury.

Several workers said the subcontractors tried to conceal workplace injuries from the authorities.