Employer's Return To Work Obligations
Summary of your obligations
- Plan for your worker’s return to work:
- Obtain relevant information about your worker's capacity for work
- Consider reasonable workplace support, aids or modifications to assist in your worker's return to work
- Assess and propose options for suitable or pre-injury employment
- Provide your worker with clear, accurate and current details of their return to work arrangements
- Monitor your worker's progress
- Consult directly with your worker about their return to work, with their treating health practitioner (subject to the consent of the worker) and occupational rehabilitation provider (if involved).
- For a period of 52 weeks, provide your injured worker with suitable employment if they have an incapacity for work or pre-injury employment or equivalent when they have returned to full capacity.
- Nominate and appoint a Return to Work Coordinator who has an appropriate level of seniority and is competent to assist you meet your return to work obligations.
- Make information about return to work available to all workers.
- If a host, cooperate with the labour hire employer's efforts to meet their return to work obligations and facilitate the worker's return to work.
Host employers
If a worker’s injury arises during the course of labour hire employment, there are specific obligations for both labour hire agencies and host employers.
- Labour hire and return to work
- Compliance Code 4 of 4: Cooperating with labour hire employers about return to work
When your obligations begin
Your return to work obligations commence on the first day you receive either:
- The injured worker’s Certificate of Capacity
- The injured worker’s claim form
- Notification from your WorkSafe Agent that they have received either of these documents
Further information
You are legally obliged to help an injured worker get back to work as soon as safely possible. These obligations and details of how you can meet them are outlined in the following publications:
- Information for employers - Return to work obligations
- A guide for employers - What to do if a worker is injured
- Return to Work Information Template
- Return to work arrangements template
- Step by step guide to assessing suitable employment options
Compliance codes have also been developed to comprehensively detail how you can meet your obligations.
Resolving issues
Return to work issues can impact on an injured worker’s rehabilitation and return to work. Regular communication is often the best way to avoid return to work issues arising.
However, if a return to work issue does arise, you and the worker must attempt to resolve the issue.
