Both the employer and the employee have a vested interest in getting the injured party back to work as quickly as possible following an on-the-job accident, but oftentimes an employee can’t return in a full capacity until enough healing has occurred. In these situations, the employer may offer the employee the opportunity to return to work in a limited capacity with a light duty role.
As the name implies, a light duty role allows the employee to return to work with some physical restrictions in place. For example, a police officer recovering from a broken ankle may be reassigned to a desk job for 12 weeks until they can safely return to their normal position that involves more physical tasks. Many employers find ways to offer light duty positions to injured employees, but are you required to accept this position if it’s offered to you?
In many instances, turning down gainful employment, even if it is in a limited or light duty capacity, can result in the termination of their total temporary disability benefits, but not always. In today’s blog, we explain some of the ways you may be able to turn down light duty work and retain your disability benefits while you continue to recover.
Turning Down Light Duty Work
In the vast majority of cases, if your employer offers you work that abides by any physical restrictions that your doctor has put in place, you are required to accept the work. Turning down this offer is viewed by the insurance company as operating in bad faith, and they may choose to terminate your benefits because of your decision.
However, there are a few instances where you can turn down light duty work without fear of losing your injury benefits. While any light duty work needs to abide by your physical restrictions, the light duty work must be reasonable in nature. If the light duty offer is not deemed to be reasonable, you can say no thanks, and you should have no problem retaining your benefits as you work to make a full recovery.
While “reasonableness” will vary on a case by case basis, let’s explore some common light duty work requests that may be considered unreasonable:
Significant Move – If light duty work would require you to travel 30 minutes across town instead of half a mile down the road to your current office, the court may view this as a reasonable request. However, if the light duty work would require you to travel out of state or move somewhere else, this would likely be viewed as an unreasonable request.
Problematic Shift Change – Similarly, if your only reason for wanting to turn down light duty work is because it would force you to temporarily switch from first shift to second shift, you probably won’t be able to claim that this is an unreasonable request. However, if you’re a single parent without childcare and the light duty offering is only overnight shifts, you could argue that it’s simply unreasonable for you to be able to make sure a drastic temporary shift change fit into your lifestyle based on the needs of your dependents.
Inability To Secure Transportation To Work – If you work in a rural area and there is no reasonable way to get to the jobsite while you’re recovering, you may be able to turn down light duty work. However, workers’ compensation will pay for certain travel expenses, so if public transportation is available, you can’t decline light duty work simply because you don’t want to take the bus.
These are just a few examples of when an employee may be within their right to legally turn down light duty work without losing their TTD benefits, but this is far from a comprehensive list. And while every situation will be examined on a case-by-case basis, the general rule is that a worker does not need to dramatically alter their lifestyle in order to accept a light duty job offer.
Even if it seems like you’re well within your rights to turn down light duty work, don’t be surprised if you run into some pushback from your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer. Don’t let them take advantage of your lack of familiarity with the system and cut off your benefits early. Make sure your rights are protected, and the best way to do that is with an experienced legal team by your side. Hey Workers has done that for countless clients in the past, and we can do the same for you. For more information, give the team at Hey Workers a call today at (844) 439-9675.
