Why do we have to provide suitable duties, what are the benefits and consequences?

 

We understand that it is usually not operationally optimal when having to accommodate suitable duties for injured workers. That is why we are here to help, as Rehab Providers, our job is to ensure the injured worker is contributing to the operational needs of the company during their return to work process while minimizing the interruption and stress from the company's operational aspect.

It is required by the legislation for employers to provide suitable duties to injured workers after sustaining a work-related injury.  As employers fail to do so , they will be penalised in terms of their workers compensation premium in the upcoming financial year. The actual financial impact can be clarified with the insurer's case manager.

Therefore, based on our experiences which we always recommended to facilitate the injured workers returning to pre-injury duties, as it is believed to be the most cost effective approach when handling workers compensation claims.

Our job is to ensure the process of returning to work in a prompt and safe manner, therefore the  case can achieve a finalisation with minimal financial impact to the company.

 

What happens after we withdraw suitable duties because we are truly unable to accommodate?

 

It is still within our recommendation for the employer to accommodate return to work at their best capacity. However, we understand due to controllable factors that sometimes the return to work goal for an injured worker has to be different employer.

Upon withdrawal of suitable duties, the worker's wages, and treatment will continue to be covered by the insurer, and a vocational job seeking program will be implemented to assist the worker returning to a suitable employment that is within his/her functional capacity and transferable skills. However, the cost of vocational return to work and wages will continue to impact the premium of the employer for up to 3 years. Actual amount of the impact can be evaluated by the insurer's case manager.

However, if the worker successfully finds alternative employment earlier than the 3 year benchmark, the employer will be free from financial liability earlier depending on how soon the worker will be financially independent from insurer's wage payment.

It is also our Rehab's job to provide vocational assistance to ensure the worker returns to paid employment as early as possible to minimize financial impact.

 

This particular injured worker has been on restricted working hours & duties for a prolonged period of time, he/she demonstrated minimal progression in recent period, what should we do?

 

From rehab perspective, we always promote return to work of injured workers to their pre-injury working hours as a priority. With upgrade to pre-injury working hours can minimize work time loss due to the claim, and therefore minimize the impact on employer's workers compensation insurance premium. If the worker has not achieved his/her pre-injury hours yet, we will discuss in consultation with the employer and worker to identify the range of suitable duties that the workers are believed to be physically/ psychologically fit to perform under their current medical conditions. We are able to develop a return to work plan/graded plan with specific stages and timeframe to outlining the worker achieving pre-injury working hours with the duties and timeframe being discussed. The plan will be presented to NTD and insurer in order for the doctors to confirm and issue ongoing certification of capacity reflecting the upgrade accordingly.

For workers having prolonged process of returning back to pre-injury duties, that we will collect medical information in consultation from NTD, specialist, physio, IME etc to confirm if the worker can still recover to pre-injury physical functions, and what deems to be the barrier and recovery timeframe. If the prognosis has been changed, we will discuss the possibility of providing permanent modified duties.

 

What are permanent modified duties and what is the benefit for employers to provide them?

 

When workers achieve maximum medical improvement as justified by the NTD, specialist or IMC, they are confirmed not able to return to pre-injury work capacity. Therefore, the most prompt and effective way to finalise the return to work aspect of the workers compensation claim will be providing them with Permanent Modified Duties (PMD) . The PMD will be a role/position that the employer believes this individual worker can still contribute to the operation and be value added to the company that the worker can perform sustainably in the long term.

If PMD are unable to be provided that the worker will be transitioned to a vocational job seeking program that may have potential impact on the employer's insurance premium, details please refer to question 2 of this document.

 

We believed this particular injured worker can proceed with further upgrade of his/her working hours and duties. However, the worker or his/her doctor is not keen to proceed with the upgrade, what can we do?

 

Our professional consultants will conduct a workplace review with the employer and worker, to identify the upgraded working hours and duties will be within client's physical functions, and then present the findings in a medical case conference with the worker and NTD to facilitate the upgrade of certification, which the employer representative can also be invited to the case conference to discuss strategies of moving forward.  

If somehow the worker or NTD is still reluctant to upgrade the certification that we will discuss with the insurer regarding the recommendation of organising an Independent Medical Consultation (IMC) which to have an independent doctor/specialist to review the current medical and return to work status of the injured worker to confirm if the recommendation is to proceed with further upgrades, if yes, the IMC outcome will be feedback to NTD to facilitate the upgrade.