Light Duty Work
I am asked a lot of questions about light duty work. If you are injured at work and your employer offers you light duty work, what should you do?
Well, first and foremost, the statute requires the employer to provide to your physician a statement describing the available work in terms which will allow the physician to determine the physical activities of job. The physician then determines whether the worker is able to perform the work described. You are also to be provided with a copy. So, if you get a phone call from your employer asking you to report to light duty work, ask for the written description and ask whether it has been provided to your physician, and whether your physician has approved it. Sometimes this paperwork flies around fairly quickly by Fax, so you might not be aware the job description was sent to your doctor. Ask for a copy.
If there is a written job description, and it has been approved by your medical provider – do you have to report to work? The choice is yours, of course. However, if you decline light duty work which has been approved by your physician your time loss benefits will stop. And, it will be hard to get them reinstated. Not impossible, but very difficult. You are better off reporting to work.
There are some things to keep in mind if you are returning to light duty work with your employer after an injury. First, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It may help your recovery to stay active, working a few hours a day can help ease you into a return to regular work. Staying connected to the work force reduces long-term disability. Returning to light duty or modified work may preserve your benefits including health care, pension contributions, vacation pay and the like. In most cases, workers will be better off financially if they return to work with their employer, even part-time work, sooner rather than later.
Making sure your physical restrictions and limitations are honored is your responsibility. If you are asked to do something outside your restrictions, politely decline. If you don’t enforce your restrictions, no one else will. If you are consistently asked to do work which exceeds your limitations, speak to a supervisor, and tell your attending medical provider. Your doctor may decide to pull you off the light duty work if you are doing tasks which place you at risk of reinjury or will slow your recovery.
Most employers are genuine in their desire to get you back to work, keep you connected to the work force, reduce your lost wages, and ultimately return you to regular work. I said ‘most’ not ‘all’. There is no rule of law which requires your employer to be nice to you. Some won’t be. Some will be rude, some will give you demeaning work, some will belittle you in front of your co-workers. They want you to quit. They want to trump up a reason to fire you for violating a company rule. If you are fired for cause or quit light duty work which was approved by your physician, your time loss benefits will not be reinstated. At least, not without a fight. These bad apple employers do not want you around. If they can not get you to quit, or find a reason to fire you for cause, the light duty work will likely evaporate and you will be eligible for time loss again. In the meantime, mutter karma, karma, karma under your breath, enforce your physical restrictions, and concentrate on your recovery.
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i was hired on to a window cleaning co to wash windows and clean .when i hurt my back at work for the 6 th time in 10 years ,the dr i seen told me i could return to work light duty .my boss informed workers comp that i could return to work as an assisting secratary to his wife in his basment ,far from the job description that i was hired for . my question is do i have no choice or do i have to learn secratarial skills?
?
If your employer is offering you a legitimate, bona fide light duty job, and you have the skills to do it, then your choices are pretty limited. You can accept the job or turn it down and have your time loss benefits stopped. But there are at least three things which jump out at me from your post.
First, the light duty job offer has to be work with the employer of injury, not another employer. If the bosses wife has her own business in the basement, then this is not work with the employer of injury.
Second, it does not sound as if you have the skills to do secretarial work. If this is general office work that you can do with out retraining, that might be ok. But if your employer is talking about ‘retraining’ you, then you absolutely do have some choices.
Third, you do not say whether your attending medical provider has reviewed and approved a light duty job description. This is required so both employer and worker know the physical limits on return to work activity.
You should talk to an attorney, and make sure this is a bona fide light duty job offer. If you are unsure, and have an immediate return to work date, I usually suggest accepting the job and showing up – and then getting some help to determine if it a bona fide light duty job offer.
Good Luck.
I was injured at work 3 years ago. I had therapy off and on for a year but because I was still doing the same job the problem worsened and I had my first surgery. The surgery didn’t work so I had a more complicated surgery. I had therapy for a while after that but because of the cuting of muscles and tendons in my elbow I developed wrist problems and therapy discharged me pending more diagnosis test ordered by my Dr. These test where never approved and my L& I claim was closed.Meanwhile I had to have sugery on my other elbow.(Separate Claim#) I am at this time in therapy but again I am having strenght and mobility problems with that wrist and now I also have developed secondary ACL tendonitis in my shoulder. My Dr. today said I could do light duty work. I was released from employment a year and a half ago because I was not able to return even for light duty. My question is how do I find a light duty job from a new employer?
Sherrie,
It sounds like you have not been released to return to work at your job of injury. If that is the case, what happens next depends on your work history and transferable skills. Your Time Loss should continue, at least for now. You should be assigned a vocational counselor (VRC), who will be asked to conduct an Ability to Work Assessment (AWA). If you can not return to your job of injury the VRC will assess whether you can return to previous work, or alternative work using transferable work skills. Further vocational services may or may not be offered depending on the outcome of this assessment. If you have questions about the process, your rights, or what to do in a specific situation, get to an attorney.
In the meantime, I tell my clients to take control of their lives. Very few injured workers are found not employable and able to benefit from further vocational services. Last time I saw numbers, something like 2000 workers a year were offered retraining. So, don’t wait for L&I to decide your employable and terminate your benefits. Figure out what you want to do. Apply for Social Security Disability if you honestly believe you can not and will not return to work. If you think you can physically work, think about what you want to do, and start taking steps in that direction. Talk to your assigned VRC about what skills you have and suggestions for how to best use them. If you find a job, notify your claims manager. If you want to go to school, research it, sign up, and tell your vocational counselor. There are a lot of training programs out there, short and long, academic and vocational. You might have to finance it with student loans, or maybe the counselor will recommend retraining. Either way, you are moving forward.
The point is, it is your future. You should start deciding how to spend it.
i have a position reviewing data for an environmental company. i just had shoulder surgery and after 10 days returned to work. I am slower at my job, but getting better everyday. I will be in a restrictive sling for 5 more weeks. i am still in alot of pain. Yesterday, a co-worker came up to me and clamped their hand down on my shoulder, then shook it. I reacted by screaming then was in pain spasms for the rest of the day and unable to work. i was told by my employer that i am not fit for duty if i react this way to being touched. i responded politely that i am fit for duty and have the right to work, and that my employer needs to provide me with a work environment where i will not be touched, jostled or bumped into during the course of the day for the next 6 weeks. i am at home today using up my last vacation day while recovering from the muscle spasms set off by my co-worker. do i have the right to return to work tomorrow?
You don’t say if the shoulder surgery was done under a workers compensation claim. I’m guessing yes, or you are not likely to have posted your question here. If this is a workers compensation claim, and your employer tells you to stay home because they do not think you can do your job yet, then you are entitled to time loss benefits. You shouldn’t be using your vacation days. Talk to your doctor about restrictions on your work activities, then share those restrictions with your employer.
I have a work related injury. I drive a truck over the road. I fell on the job. I am receiving loss wages benifits. I have 3 ruptured disks in my neck and 2 in my lower back. I am facing surgery at the least in my neck if not both neck and lower back. My employer has created a job that did not exist befor my injury. He wants me to do light duty as a night watchman sitting at a desk and answering a phone that nobody will be calling because there is nobody around to do anything. I am taking prescribed strong pain meds. With my condition I am walking with a walker and cannot drive because of the meds. Do I have to take the light duty work if I cannot drive because of meds? I dont understand what the purpose of trying to put me to work at a job that never existed before and having doing anything at a job on heavy meds. I cannot by law drive a vehicle of any kind to and from work because the narcotic meds. By the way it is 80mi one way to and from my job. Please give me advice on what I can do at this point and time?
If your medical provider has approved the return to the light duty job, you should go to work, or risk losing your benefits. That said, you should clearly talk to your doctor about the drive, and make sure you are authorized to do it. He may well suggest you avoid taking the meds until after your shift; or may conclude you can not do the drive given the medication. In any event – let your physician’s advice guide you at this point.