5.1 Assess suitable duties

Most injured workers don't return to their normal pre-injury role straight away. When a worker has less than full capacity, the employer needs to assess the workplace to identify suitable duties. This will involve reviewing their medical information. Your WorkSafe agent may also appoint an occupational rehabilitation provider to help with this process.

What are suitable duties?

Suitable duties are the tasks and hours that you can provide to your injured worker when they are able to return to work. This may include things like:

modified tasks
modified hours
reduced or alternative duties
providing special equipment to support their return to work.

Why you need to identify suitable duties

You have a legal obligation to provide suitable or pre-injury employment for up to 52 weeks.
Most injured workers gradually return to work while they're recovering. Identifying suitable duties helps them transition back into the workplace.
Even a part-time return to work is helpful for your injured worker. It can also reduce your WorkCover insurance premium.

How to identify suitable duties

Step 1: Understand your injured worker's capacity for work

Things you can do to get an understanding of your injured worker's capacity for work include:

talking to your injured worker
reading their certificate of capacity
reviewing any other relevant information such as medical or occupational rehabilitation reports
liaising with your agent.

It may be useful to speak to your agent about engaging external support such as an occupational rehabilitation provider. Information about how an occupational rehabilitation provider can help is provided below.

If you haven’t already, this would be a good time to ask your injured worker if they have any skills, qualifications or work history you aren't aware of.

Step 2: Look at your injured worker's usual job and see whether you can modify the role to suit their capacity

This may involve things like:

removing some of the normal requirements of your injured worker's role
providing equipment to help them complete tasks
allowing them to work reduced hours and/or days while they're recovering
changing your injured worker's start and finish times.

Step 3: If you can't modify your injured worker's pre-injury role, consider what other duties are available

These alternate duties may be in the immediate work area or other parts of the business. Also consider whether you have any duties that can be completed from home. You may not be able to offer these duties full time, but even a few hours a week will help their recovery.

It will be useful here to know your injured worker's full range of skills and qualifications. You may be able to use these to help your business.

Step 4: Explore other ways you can support your injured worker’s return to work

Look at where your injured worker lives and how they normally get to work. If their injury or illness makes it hard for them to travel, you may be able to help remove some of those barriers. For example:

modified start or finish times to avoid heavy traffic
working at a different site that’s easier for them to get to
if appropriate, it may be possible for a co-worker to help them get to and from work
allowing them to work from home, if possible.

Step 5: Make a list of the duties you’ve identified, share them with your injured worker, and ask for their feedback

Even if your injured worker is currently unfit for work, you still need to start planning for their return to work. Consulting with your injured worker about potential suitable duties is an important step in that process.

The next module will cover how to put together the proposed return to work arrangements.

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