Section 5
Return to Work
Section 5 Return to Work
5.1 Suitable duties
5.2 Return-to-Work Plan
5.3 Injury Management Plan
5.4 Long term injury options
5.5 Trouble-shooting
Information / ReferencesThis Section describes the key function of the Injury Management Team - organising the injured employee to return to work. All treatment, rehabilitation and communication are directed towards this goal.
There are some compulsory, legal requirements about return to work that meat processors need to fulfill – there is a legal definition of suitable employment and there is a RTW Plan template that must be followed.
There is a consultative process to return to work. All members of the Injury Management Team need to be involved and their written agreement gained.
There is an administrative function to return to work. The RTW coordinator must complete various forms and make sure that copies are given to the employee, the insurer and the doctor(s) and kept on the RTW file. See Section 3 of the IM Resource Pack for samples of all these forms.
There is a best practice way of returning injured employees to work. Research has shown conclusively that early involvement of the employer, early offers of suitable duties, supportive supervision from front-line supervisors and constant review of the employee’s progress, together make for a successful, durable recovery.
Unfortunately, not all employees recover sufficiently to return to their pre-injury duties. These employees need different IM strategies like retraining or job-seeking. The smart meat processor will not continue with suitable duties if these different strategies are necessary. / For further reading about return to work procedures:
OHS Reference Guide for Australian Meat Industry Appendices 37-42
Guidelines to Employers’ RTW Programs
WorkCover NSW.
Workplace Safety Kit WorkCover NSW Tool 8
5.1 Suitable Duties
The selection of suitable duties is often one of the most difficult parts of successfully returning an employee to the workplace and may require some lateral thinking by all parties. However, research has shown that the employer’s attitude and care in offering suitable duties is one of the most important factors in return to work outcomes. Be sure that employees are aware that you are making every effort to assist their rehabilitation.
“Suitable employment” has a legal definition and an employee is within their rights to refuse offers of work by an employer that do not include the following criteria.
The duties must:
- meet medical restrictions, that is, the required duties will not aggravate the employee’s condition (note that the employee’s ability to travel to and from work also needs to be taken into account)
- be within the skills capacity of the employee and
- be meaningful and comparable with the level at which the employee was employed originally.
- work that is merely of a token nature or that is not useful for your industry and its day-to-day business
- work that is demeaning to the employee and has no employment prospects.
- parts of the job the injured employee was doing before the injury
- the same job, but on reduced hours
- different duties altogether
- duties at a different site
- training opportunities
- a combination of some or all the above.
WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT 1987 - SECTION 43A Definition of Suitable Employment
Make your RTW Program a workable document – it contains the steps to arranging suitable dutiesHow to find suitable duties
The RTW coordinator, in consultation with the employee’s doctor, the employee, the supervisor, a rehabilitation provider and the union (if appropriate), usually arranges suitable duties. Steps for finding suitable duties are outlined below.
Step 1:
List the duties of the employee’s normal job by talking to the employee and their supervisor. You will generally need to go and review the work they usually do so that the duties selected will be able to meet the criteria for "suitable employment”.
Step 2:
Determine the employee’s limits and abilities by reading the restrictions on the medical certificate. Consider how these restrictions prevent the employee from performing their normal duties. If you have any questions, ring the nominated treating doctor. You should also talk to the injured employee to get a clearer understanding of their skills and abilities.
Step 3:
Decide what are the maximum hours the employee can work and which parts of their usual job (if any) will be possible. If necessary, identify other duties that are suitable for the employee while they are recovering from their injury.
Step 4:
Consider how the duties and hours selected for the injured employee may affect the supervisor’s work routine and the other employees. Everyone, including fellow employees, will need to be supportive for successful return to work. This may require education of the supervisor and/or their peers.
Step 5:
Write down the proposed duties in a Return-to-Work (RTW) Plan. Include a starting date and a review date. Make sure all relevant parties agree to it, sign it and are supplied with a copy.
Step 6:
Get medical clearance from the nominated treating doctor for the duties you are proposing in the RTW Plan.
Step 7:
Identify any training, job-redesign or special equipment required and ensure training is carried out and/or job altered and/or equipment supplied. An occupational therapist or physiotherapist with specialist training can assist in identifying equipment and/or modifications to the worksite. Most accredited rehabilitation providers can provide this service.
Step 8:
Identify other duties that can be added as the employee recovers and is upgraded according to medical advice.
Many processors have found it extremely useful to identify duties that may be suitable for injured employees before any injury has occurred. These can be built into a ‘bank’ or ‘register’ of duties that are potentially suitable for injured employees. By having these readily available, discussions with the injured employee and their treating professionals can be more focused and this can help the RTW process.
To follow is a list of suitable duties ideas from Bindaree Beef in Inverell.
“The aim is to try to get each section to carry their own wounded however this is not always possible and it may be necessary to transfer injured employees to other sections so as to keep them in an “in the team” job, that is a job that you would normally pay somebody else to do, as opposed to a supernumery”
More often than not, the suitable duties that the injured employee can return to are their own job, with some modifications (either the hours or the tasks of the job or both). They remain in the same section of the plant, with the same supervisor and team.
Sometimes the employee’s injury will mean that they cannot return to any of their usual duties for a period of time. In these cases the RTW coordinator's knowledge of the plant and contacts with other supervisors and managers is vital. The coordinator or the rehabilitation provider will need to match the employee’s skills to tasks outside their normal duties.
Questions to ask:
- is there any work in the person’s usual work area that doesn't get done because there isn't time in the day to complete it?
- is there any work in other sections of the plant where the staff are always in need of extra help?
- can the employee assist with the induction of new staff or the training of other staff?
- is there a retraining opportunity for this particular injured employee while they are recovering from the injury?
Don’t use up all your suitable duties positions with employees who need long term solutions.
Bindaree Beef Occupational Rehabilitation Programme.
Suitable Duties for Rehabilitating Employees.
Boning Rooms
- Gatehouse duties, depending upon employee suitability.
- Box room – assist with carton assembly.
- Pre-trimming - light knife work.
- Packing product – such as rib intercostals.[sometimes can be performed seated on a stool.]
- Chillers assessing. – if qualified.
- Operating the Sastec machine.
- Cryovacing – placing plastic bags over cuts of meat prior to cryovacing.
- Offal / Tripe room. – light packing, trimming or light knife work..
- Clothing store - Assist with the issuing of clothing and consumables. Carry out mending and ironing.
- Training. – utilise the period of incapacity to carry out any off the job component of training or learn other duties [as an extra] or train others.
- Change to different (slower) chain.
- Pick up plastic or bungs from paddocks where paunch material has been dumped.
- Hook room - Oiling hooks and inspecting hooks and rollers for wear.
- Monitoring the product – collate data, how many heads or paunches are condemned, and why.
- Tickets – making up the various carcass tickets [can be done in a sedentary position].
- Washing bungs. – using a light hose.
- Cattle Race – driving cattle up the race.
- Calf blood room. - Removal and Packing of foetal calf blood.
- Tail tag recording –
- Attaching weight tickets and stamping carcasses
- Stamping cartons.
- Product Scanning.
- Operating forklift [if ticketed]
- Sweeping floors / hosing.
- Grounds maintenance.
5.2 Return-to-Work Plan
The RTW Plan is the written, formal offer of suitable duties by the meat processor to the injured employee.
It is designed to make clear what the employee can and cannot do when they return to work and when this will be reviewed. The Plan must be developed in consultation with the employee, supervisor, nominated treating doctor, RTW coordinator, employee representative (if appropriate), and accredited rehabilitation provider (if applicable). It is critical that the suitable duties that have been selected to be included in the RTW Plan meet the legal criteria (see Section 5.1 above).
The RTW Plan includes:
- name of the employee, supervisor, nominated treating doctor, RTW coordinator and accredited rehabilitation provider (if applicable)
- the employee's job title and location
- agreed purpose of suitable duties (to return to pre-injury job, or an interim measure to assess capacity to return to pre-injury or to an alternative job)
- medical restrictions as stated by the nominated treating doctor, eg. "standing restricted to 20 minutes"
- the work the returning employee will do including tasks to be done and tasks to be avoided
- timeframes including commencement date and length of program, which days of the week the employee will work and specific hours
- treatment arrangements (times and dates, treatment service)
- any equipment/training/work redesign required
- review date/s
- the signatures of the involved parties that indicate that they have agreed to the Plan.
In developing RTW Plans, consideration should be given to:
- the special needs of individual employees, for example, the communication needs of employees who speak languages other than English
- the personal circumstances of injured employees that may impact on suitable duties, for example, child care arrangements
- industrial issues in the worksite
- impact on the workload of other employees
- the employee may require training in the suitable duties tasks prior to the RTW Plan being implemented
- the WorkCover NSW requirement that appointment times for treatment, for example, physiotherapy, be arranged to suit the business of the processor. There is no compulsion for employers to permit employees to attend treatment during work hours. After hours appointments may be more convenient.
Arrange appointment times for treatment directly with the physiotherapist and doctor – see “Guide to employers’ RTW Programs”. WorkCover NSW
5.3 Injury Management Plan
After the insurer has been notified by the RTW coordinator that an employee is injured and cannot return to their pre-injury duties within 7 days, the insurer has 3 days in which to make contact with the RTW coordinator, the injured employee and the treating doctor.
The purpose of this early contact is to obtain information which will enable the insurer to develop an Injury Management (IM) Plan for the employee.
The IM Plan is usually developed by the injury management advisors who are usually health professionals specifically employed by the insurer to do so. These people have experience with communicating with doctors and employees and the intention is to start injury management as early as possible.
The IM Plan outlines all the services which will be required to return the injured employee to the workplace, including the proposed treatment (physiotherapy, medical investigations etc) and the employer's offer of suitable duties. Where there is an offer of suitable duties the RTW Plan will be attached to the IM Plan.
Once the insurer provides a copy of the IM Plan to both the RTW coordinator and the employee, they are then obliged to comply with obligations imposed by the IM Plan. This means that the employee must attend for the treatment specified and the employer must provide the suitable duties.
There is no prescribed format for an IM Plan. Ask your insurer to show you one. / Failure to comply with an IM Plan could mean a fine for the employer and the suspending of benefits for the employee
5.4 Long Term Injury Options
Unfortunately, not all injured employees recover sufficiently to return to their pre-injury jobs. To complicate matters, this often does not become apparent for some time, and often after the injured employee has tried, and failed, several times to return to work on suitable duties. Communication and relationships between IM team members may become strained as it becomes apparent that the goal of return to work is not being reached. You will need a medical report to support the decision that return to pre-injury duties is not possible.
WorkCover Training and Employment Programs
WorkCover NSW has a range of programs to help seriously injured employees who need additional assistance to return to work. These programs, which are funded by WorkCover, include:
Work Trials
These are short periods of work experience with a host employer, to help the injured employee develop work skills and/or to upgrade their physical fitness in a suitable work environment.
When to consider a WorkTrial
Where the injured employee needs assistance to upgrade and this assistance cannot be provided on-site (i.e. no suitable duties).Where an employee needs help to gain new skills or increase their work fitness and they are unable to remain with their pre-injury employer. In this instance the WorkTrial can occasionally lead to employment with the host employer.
Retraining and Equipment/Worksite Modifications
Assistance with formal retraining can be arranged for an injured employee when they cannot return to their previous job and they do not have other marketable skills to find suitable employment. The costs of retraining do not impact on your premium. Generally accredited rehabilitation providers complete the application for retraining, for the insurer to approve. However, an experienced RTW coordinator may also be able to arrange the assessments and submit the application to the insurer.