Card 04 · Return to work
Return to work after a workplace injury
In the schemes that set it out, employers must help, often by offering suitable duties, and injured workers must make reasonable efforts and take part in planning. You don’t have to be fully recovered to start; WorkSafe Tasmania says you needn’t have finished treatment before you go back.
General information, not legal advice. The duties below are those each regulator states. If you think your employer isn’t meeting theirs, your scheme’s regulator or advisory line can tell you what applies.
Two sides of the same card
Victoria and Western Australia set out both sides plainly, and they match closely. These are their lists, in short.
The worker’s side
- Make reasonable efforts to return to work, in suitable or pre-injury work.
- Take part and cooperate in planning your return, and in a return to work program where there is one.
- Use an occupational rehabilitation service if one is provided, and cooperate with assessments of your capacity.
- In WA, give each progress certificate of capacity to your employer and insurer within seven days, and attend return-to-work case conferences when they are arranged.
The employer’s side
- In Victoria, provide suitable employment while you have an incapacity for work, for 52 weeks after the injury, and pre-injury or equivalent work once you are back to full capacity.
- Consult you, and with your consent your treating practitioner, about options.
- In Victoria, appoint a return to work coordinator with enough seniority to do the job.
- In WA, make sure a return to work program in the approved form is set up as soon as practicable after your doctor issues a certificate of capacity showing you are partially incapacitated for work, your doctor advises the employer in writing that a program should be set up, or an arbitrator decides or the parties to a dispute agree that you are incapacitated for work; and give you the chance to take part in shaping it, as far as reasonably practicable.
- In WA, make your pre-injury position available (unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so) or provide a suitable position, for 12 months from the day you first had an incapacity for work from the injury.
- In WA, not dismiss you solely or mainly because of your incapacity, or for any reason without notice in the approved form at least 28 days before the dismissal takes effect.
Victoria’s obligations start before a claim is accepted. They begin once the employer has the certificate of capacity, the claim form or notice from the WorkSafe agent.
The plan has a different name in each place
Most schemes use a written plan to set out duties, hours, treatment and who does what. If you hear one of these names, this is what it means.
| Scheme | What the plan is called | Who puts it together |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Injury management plan, for a worker with a likely significant injury | The insurer, with the worker, employer and nominated treating doctor |
| QLD | Suitable duties plan, separate from your My Recovery Plan (rehabilitation and return to work plan) | A Rehabilitation and Return to Work Coordinator may be assigned to help; you, your coordinator, your employer and your doctor all sign the suitable duties plan |
| WA | Return to work program | The employer, with the worker; a workplace rehabilitation provider can help |
| SA | Recovery and return to work plan; a graduated return to work schedule must be signed off by a doctor | Your claims manager can help identify duties; the treating doctor approves the schedule |
| TAS | Return to work plan, or the more detailed injury management plan | An injury management coordinator is appointed if you have 5 days or more of incapacity |
| ACT | Personal injury plan | The insurer, with the employer and worker; a rehabilitation provider must be appointed if you aren’t back to normal duties within 4 weeks of the employer being notified |
| NT | Return to work plan | A vocational rehabilitation provider, if you can’t return to normal duties |
Suitable duties
Suitable duties, also called alternative duties, are other tasks you can safely do while you recover, worked out with your employer. WorkCover Queensland says that if your employer can’t offer them, its Recover at Work program can place you with a host employer while you recover.
The duty to offer them is set differently in each place:
- NSW. If an injured employee asks for suitable work, the employer must provide work that fits their current capacity and, where possible, is reasonably equivalent to their original role, unless that isn’t reasonably practicable, the worker left the job voluntarily, or the employment ended for reasons unrelated to the injury.
- Tasmania. If you can’t return to your pre-injury job, your employer must provide suitable alternative duties, chosen in consultation with you and your doctor, or explain in writing why it can’t.
- ACT. The employer must provide suitable duties if asked and where available, for 6 months from the date of injury.
- South Australia. The tribunal handles disputes about employers providing suitable employment after a work injury.
Protections for your job
- NSW · 6 monthsDismissing a worker because of a work injury within 6 months of them becoming unfit for work is an offence.
- NT · 6 monthsAn employer must not dismiss a worker for six months after a workplace injury, with exceptions, including serious and wilful misconduct.
- TAS · 12 monthsYour employer must keep your job available for 12 months, unless an exception applies, and give reasons in writing if it ends your employment.
- VIC · discriminationAn employer must not alter your position to your detriment, or treat you less favourably in promotion or re-employment, because you claimed compensation or notified an injury.
Bringing someone with you
You don’t have to sit through return-to-work meetings alone. In Victoria you can be represented, assisted and supported at any stage by any person except a legal practitioner. In Western Australia you may bring a support person to a case conference, though they mustn’t take an active part.
If the plan, the duties or a cut in payments becomes a dispute, the routes are in when a claim is disputed. In Tasmania, a dispute over injury management goes first to your injury management coordinator, who must try to resolve it informally.