Light duty and transitional work: how to set it up

Light duty, also called modified duty or transitional work, is temporary work within an injured employee's medical restrictions while the person recovers. Done well, it keeps the employee earning and attached to the job, and it reduces the wage-replacement benefits your carrier pays. It is a tool, not a right: federal law does not make you create jobs, but once you offer it to injured workers you must apply it consistently, and state comp rules decide what happens to benefits if an employee turns it down.

Light duty, transitional work and modified duty

The terms overlap, and the differences are practical.

Only the last is an ADA reasonable-accommodation question. The first three are a comp and operations question, and they are meant to end.

What the law requires of you

ADA. The EEOC's 1996 Enforcement Guidance on Workers' Compensation and the ADA says an employer that creates light-duty positions for employees injured on the job is not obligated to create the same positions as a reasonable accommodation for a disabled employee who was not injured on the job. But an employer that reserves vacant positions for employees with occupational injuries must consider reassigning a disabled employee who was not occupationally injured to such a position. The guidance predates the 2008 ADA Amendments Act, which broadened who counts as disabled, so check current EEOC materials. Employers with 15 or more employees are covered by the ADA; many states apply their own disability laws to smaller employers. More in Workers' comp, the ADA and FMLA: how they overlap.

FMLA. The FMLA covers employers with 50 or more employees. DOL guidance notes that workers' comp can run concurrently with FMLA leave when the condition is a qualifying serious health condition. An employee on FMLA leave cannot be required to accept a light-duty assignment. Under the DOL's regulation at 29 CFR 825.702(d), if the employee voluntarily accepts one, the time worked does not count against the 12-week entitlement and the right to reinstatement to the original job continues until the 12 weeks are used up. Have HR confirm the handling before you assign.

State comp law. This is where the rules diverge. States differ on:

• Whether an employee who refuses a suitable light-duty offer loses temporary disability benefits, and for how long.
• What counts as "suitable": distance, hours, shift and pay compared with the regular job.
• Whether you must continue health benefits and pay the pre-injury wage during modified work.
• Whether any wage subsidy exists to offset the cost of light duty.

Check each state where you have employees using the workers' comp and benefits requirements by state. A refusal letter that works in one state may carry no weight in another.

How to design assignments

1. Start from physical demands, not from open slots. Write what a typical restriction (no lifting over 10 lb, no overhead reach, seated only, no driving) allows. Doctors write restrictions in categories; build tasks to match.
2. Inventory useful work. Ask each department leader for tasks that are real, such as filing, training new hires, quality inspection, scheduling, safety audits, equipment cleaning, inventory counts, customer follow-up. Make-work erodes morale, and the employee knows.
3. Keep it temporary and say so. The offer letter should state the end date or review date, usually 30 to 90 days, and extend only when the restrictions are still in place and medical documentation supports it.
4. Pay the right rate. Many employers keep the regular wage during modified work, since a pay cut can create a partial wage-loss claim and morale problems. Whatever you choose, apply it uniformly.
5. Offer in writing. Include duties, hours, location, supervisor, pay, restrictions the doctor imposed and the date. Send a copy to the adjuster.
6. Brief the supervisor. The supervisor gets the restrictions, not the diagnosis, and a reminder that the employee must not exceed them.
7. Review weekly. Restrictions loosen as the injury heals. Step the duties up with them.

Insurance questions employers ask

• Is the employee covered if hurt again on light duty? Yes, the person is still your employee and the policy responds to a new injury or aggravation, which is why tasks must stay within restrictions.
• Does payroll move to a different class code? Ask your carrier and review the NCCI Basic Manual rules for your state. Payroll for temporary modified work is typically left with the employee's regular class code, not reassigned each time, but the audit treatment can vary.
• What if no light duty exists? Say so in writing and send it to the carrier. The employee stays on temporary total disability benefits as the state sets them. In some states the carrier or a managed-care nurse can help find placement elsewhere.
• Could it reduce premium? Indirectly. Fewer lost-time days mean smaller indemnity payments counted in the experience period; see how to lower your workers' comp costs.

Pitfalls

• Light duty that creates a new injury. If the "easy" job puts a hand-injured worker on a forklift, you have a second claim. Match tasks to restrictions in writing.
• Treating only some injuries as eligible. Offering light duty to work injuries but denying it to similar non-work conditions, or the reverse, can invite discrimination claims. Write the policy to apply by medical restriction, not by cause.
• Open-ended assignments. A temporary job that drifts for a year becomes an ADA and morale problem.
• The "100% healed" rule. The EEOC treats a blanket policy of requiring full recovery before return as inconsistent with the ADA, because it ignores individual accommodation.

Hypothetical example

Say a 60-employee distributor in a state where refusing suitable work suspends temporary benefits. A driver has a lifting restriction of 15 lb for six weeks. The coordinator offers dispatch support at the driver's regular pay for 30 hours a week, in writing, with a review date. The driver accepts, the carrier's wage-benefit payments are small, and the driver returns to the truck. Had he refused, the written offer would have given the carrier a basis to ask the state whether benefits should be adjusted, with the answer depending on that state's rule.

Key takeaways

• Light duty is temporary work inside medical restrictions; it is not a permanent job and not an ADA accommodation by itself.
• The ADA does not require you to create light-duty jobs, but reserved positions can create obligations (EEOC guidance, 1996, predating the 2008 amendments).
• State law decides what a refused offer does to benefits, so use the workers' comp and benefits requirements by state for each state.
• Offer in writing, match tasks to restrictions, set an end date and keep medical details confidential.
• Build assignments from a menu of real tasks before the first injury, as part of a return-to-work program.