Returning to Modified Duties During a Workers Comp Claim. What Your Employer Can Ask of You (and What You Can Question)

‘Suitable duties’ (also called modified, alternative or selected duties) are work arrangements adjusted to match your current capacity while you recover. The aim is to keep you safely connected to work in a way your treating doctor supports — a safe, well-managed return to work generally aids recovery.

In practice they can involve reduced hours; lighter or altered tasks (removing heavy lifting, prolonged standing, or certain movements); temporary alternative duties within your capacity; or equipment and workplace modifications that let you work safely.

Importantly, in NSW ‘suitable employment’ has a statutory meaning (s32A of the Workers Compensation Act 1987). It is work you are currently suited to, judged not only against your medical restrictions but also against the nature of your incapacity, your age, education, skills and experience, any rehabilitation provided, your return-to-work and injury-management plans, and other matters set out in the guidelines. Your certificate of capacity is a central part of that picture — but it is one important input, not the whole test.

Within the bounds of suitability, your employer can reasonably do quite a lot — and in NSW they are actually required to support your return to work. Under section 49 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998, an employer must, at the worker’s request, provide suitable employment unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so, and that obligation continues even where liability is in dispute (section 41A).

Your employer can generally:

• Offer you suitable duties consistent with your capacity and circumstances.
• Ask you to take part in developing and following a recover at work (return-to-work) plan.
• Adjust your duties as your capacity changes, based on current medical information.
• Involve the insurer and, where needed, a workplace rehabilitation provider to help identify suitable work.
• Expect you to attend and genuinely try duties that are suitable.

What they should not do is require you to perform duties that conflict with the current medical information, or that expose you or others to an unreasonable safety risk. If your capacity itself is in dispute, though, the treating doctor’s certificate is not necessarily the final legal word: the insurer may seek further medical evidence or make a work-capacity decision. The obligation runs both ways — the employer must offer suitable work, and you must engage with work that genuinely is suitable. For the wider picture, see our guide to what your employer can and can’t do during an active workers comp claim.

Your recover at work obligations

It’s important to be straight about this, because it’s where workers most often go wrong. If you have some capacity for work, you have obligations too — not just your employer. In NSW these are set out in section 48 of the 1998 Act, and section 48A deals with the consequences of not meeting them.

Broadly, a worker with capacity is expected to make reasonable efforts to return to suitable work when it’s available; take part in developing the recover at work plan; attend medical appointments and keep a current certificate of capacity; cooperate with the employer, insurer and any rehabilitation provider; and genuinely attempt suitable duties and give feedback on how they’re going.

This is the part it would be irresponsible to skate over: not participating in recover at work, without a proper reason, can have consequences for your claim — in NSW, section 48A allows the insurer to suspend or even terminate weekly payments where a worker doesn’t meet their return-to-work obligations. That’s exactly why ‘can I refuse?’ is the wrong first question. The better question is ‘are these specific duties suitable, and if not, how do I raise that properly?’ Raising it the right way protects your claim; simply refusing can put it at risk.

None of the above means you must accept anything you’re handed. It means the grounds for questioning duties are about whether the work is genuinely suitable — not personal preference — and the way you raise it matters as much as the fact of it. Here are the main grounds.

Duties that don’t match your medical certificate

This is the clearest and most common ground. Suitable duties should be consistent with the capacity your doctor has certified. If you’re asked to do something your certificate says you shouldn’t — lifting above a stated limit, standing longer than certified, tasks your restrictions rule out — those duties may not be suitable, and should be raised straight away rather than simply performed.

The right response isn’t a flat refusal on the spot. It’s to point to your certificate: raise it calmly with your supervisor by reference to your certified restrictions; ask that the duties be adjusted to fit; let your treating doctor and the insurer know the offered duties don’t match your capacity; and keep a written record of what you were asked to do and what you raised. Handled this way, you’re not refusing to participate — you’re keeping participation within your certified capacity.

When duties risk further injury

Sometimes duties fall within the letter of a certificate but you have a genuine concern that a specific task is unsafe. Here a careful distinction matters: an increase in pain does not necessarily mean you are causing further injury or damage, so increased symptoms are not, by themselves, a reason to stop.

So: if a task creates an immediate safety concern, or symptoms make it genuinely unsafe to continue, stop and tell your supervisor why. Otherwise, keep going but report the increasing symptoms promptly, and ask for the task — and your capacity — to be medically reviewed. Either way, route it through your treating doctor (who can review and, if appropriate, update your certificate) and the insurer (who can arrange a review of your capacity or the workplace).

Other reasons duties may not be suitable

Because suitability is broader than the certificate, duties can also be questionable for reasons that aren’t purely medical. Suitable employment takes into account your skills, qualifications and experience, so work you’re not trained or qualified to do safely, or that would need supervision or training you haven’t had, may not be suitable. Other relevant factors include whether the duties fit your agreed return-to-work plan, workplace or psychosocial risks, relevant rehabilitation recommendations, and whether your employer has properly consulted you about the arrangement. These are legitimate matters to raise — again, through your employer, doctor and insurer rather than by unilateral refusal.

Reasonable vs risky ways to respond

General orientation only. Obligations and processes differ by state and territory; check the rules that apply to your scheme.

This article uses NSW terminology — SIRA, the certificate of capacity, ‘recover at work’, and the section references above — as the worked example. In Victoria and other jurisdictions, the documents, employer obligations, review processes and the consequences of non-participation differ. Victoria, for instance, imposes return-to-work obligations on both workers and employers (including an employer ’employment obligation period’), and the consequences of non-participation there generally follow a staged process rather than an immediate loss of payments. Wherever you are, check the rules that apply in your state before questioning or declining duties, and work from your current certificate.

Sometimes a genuine disagreement remains — your employer says the duties are suitable, you and perhaps your doctor say they’re not. There are proper channels, and using them is far safer than doing unsafe work or walking off the job.

1. Go back to your treating doctor. Your certificate is a key reference point. If the duties don’t fit it, your doctor can say so; if your condition has changed, they can update it.
2. Raise it with the insurer. The insurer helps manage your recovery at work and can review your capacity, arrange a workplace assessment, or involve a rehabilitation provider.
3. Ask for the recover at work plan to be reviewed. Plans are meant to be reviewed regularly and updated to reflect your current capacity.
4. Keep records, and get advice if it doesn’t resolve. Note what you were asked to do and what you raised. If your payments are threatened or the disagreement continues, independent advice can clarify where you stand, and our free claim check is a simple place to start.

If the insurer asks you to attend an independent medical examination as part of this, it’s worth understanding how those work — SIRA’s independent medical examinations fact sheet explains the process.

Modified duties are a normal and often helpful part of recovering from a workplace injury — but only when they genuinely fit your situation. If you’re being asked to do more than is suitable, or a task is setting back your recovery, you don’t have to just accept it, and you don’t have to navigate it alone.

LHD can explain your obligations and your rights under your state’s scheme, help you work out whether the duties you’ve been offered are suitable, and step in if your entitlements are threatened over a return-to-work dispute. In NSW, funding assistance for eligible workers compensation disputes may be available through the Independent Review Office (IRO), whose ILARS scheme funds eligible workers’ legal costs, and we’ll explain any legal costs clearly before anything proceeds.

Check my claim • Call 1800 455 725 • Learn more about LHD’s workers compensation claims.

This article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Return-to-work and suitable-duties obligations differ between states and territories and depend on your certified capacity and circumstances. Always work from your current certificate of capacity and raise concerns through your treating doctor and the insurer.

• SIRA (NSW) — Injured at work: a recovery at work guide for workers
• SIRA (NSW) — Providing suitable work
• Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW) — s49 (employer must provide suitable work)
• Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW) — s48 (return to work obligations of worker)
• Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW) — s48A (failure to comply with return to work obligations of worker)
• Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) — s32A (definition of suitable employment)
• icare NSW — return to work for NSW employers
• WorkSafe Victoria — return to work obligations
• Independent Review Office (IRO) — assistance for injured workers in NSW (ILARS)