Light Duty

How light duty arises

When your authorized treating physician releases you to restricted work rather than taking you out entirely, your employer may offer a modified assignment: reduced lifting, shorter hours, a different role, or a modified version of your usual job.

Within 5 business days of learning you were released to restricted work, the carrier must send you and your employer an informational letter about your possible eligibility for temporary partial disability benefits.

Pay while on light duty.

If light duty pays less than 80% of your pre-injury average weekly wage,

makes up part of the shortfall — 80% of the difference between 80% of your AWW and what you actually earn.

You must notify the carrier within 5 business days after returning to work, and failing to report an earning capacity results in suspension or nonpayment of TPD until you do.

Refusing light duty

This is where the real risk sits. Section 440.15(6) provides that an employee who refuses employment suitable to their capacity is not entitled to any compensation during the continuance of that refusal — unless the Judge of Compensation Claims finds the refusal justifiable.

Two things follow. First, the consequence is total, not partial: refusing suitable work stops compensation, not just the difference. Second, the weeks still count against your 104 week limit. You lose entitlement and receive nothing.

But the word “suitable” matters. An offer that exceeds your medical restrictions is not suitable employment, and a refusal on that basis may well be justifiable. The question is whether the offered job is genuinely within the capacity your doctor has documented.

Where light duty goes wrong

• Assignments that exceed the written restrictions. A 20 pound lifting limit and a job requiring 40 pound lifts is not a suitable offer, no matter what the paperwork says.
• Restrictions drifting in practice. The assignment starts within limits, then gradually expands. Document each time you are asked to work outside your restrictions and report it to your doctor.
• Make-work designed to prompt a quit. Sitting in a room, counting inventory, or being assigned a shift that conflicts with medical appointments. Quitting has consequences: leaving without just cause allows benefits to be computed on deemed earnings as though you had stayed.
• Hours quietly reduced. Light duty at fewer hours reduces earnings, which should increase TPD. Check the arithmetic every pay period.
• Termination characterized as misconduct. If you are terminated from post-injury employment based on misconduct, TPD is not payable.
• No written offer. Verbal offers create disputes about what was actually offered. Ask for it in writing.

What this means for your claim

Do not simply refuse a light duty offer, and do not simply accept one that exceeds your restrictions. Both are costly in different directions.

Compare the written offer against your current written restrictions. If the job exceeds them, say so in writing, tell your doctor, and get updated documentation — that record is what makes a refusal justifiable. If it is within your restrictions, take it and make sure TPD is calculated on your actual earnings.

Almost every light duty dispute is really a documentation dispute. The worker with a written offer, written restrictions, and a written record of what actually happened wins those disputes.