Light duty offer letter template: bringing an injured driver back to dispatch, phones, or office work

This letter offers an injured driver temporary work inside the doctor’s written restrictions: confirming trips by phone, scheduling, building next-day manifests, checking vehicle paperwork. Which tasks fit a NEMT office, and the wage reimbursement programs in Oregon and Washington, are in the “Getting injured drivers back to work” section of the workers’ compensation guide. This page is the letter, what each part is there for, and the rules that decide whether the offer counts. The injury itself is recorded first on the employee injury report form.

What to have in hand before you write

Get the doctor’s restrictions in writing first, because the letter has to match them line for line.

1. A work status note. In Texas it is the DWC-073 form, whose boxes cover how many hours a day the employee can stand, sit, kneel, or twist, a lift and carry limit in pounds, and whether the employee may drive. Elsewhere, ask the doctor for the same details in writing. A note that only says “light duty” is not enough.
2. Two questions for a vague note. OSHA’s recordkeeping rule lets you ask the provider whether the employee can perform every routine function of the job and work the entire normal shift. A no to either makes it a restricted work case, and so does a note you cannot clarify.
3. A call to your claims adjuster. The Texas Department of Insurance tells employers to coordinate with the adjuster before making a bona fide job offer, so the insurer knows about it and the requirements are met.
4. A job you can describe. If you cannot say what the employee will do for the hours you are offering, the offer is not ready.

The letter

Replace each bracket. Send the letter with a copy of the doctor’s work status note attached, and keep the signed reply slip with the claim file.

[Company letterhead]

[Date]

[Employee name] [Home address]

Re: Temporary modified work offer for your injury of [date of injury]. Claim number: [number, if known]

Dear [first name],

Your doctor, [doctor’s name], has cleared you to work with restrictions from [date] until [date, or “further notice”]. A copy of the work status note is attached. [Company name] is offering you the temporary job below, which stays inside those restrictions.

• Job: [Title, for example: trip confirmation caller, scheduling assistant, or vehicle paperwork clerk]
• Where you will work: [Address, and the room or desk]
• Schedule: [Days and hours, and the first day you would report. Do not exceed the daily hours on the note.]
• Pay: [$ per hour. State whether this is your usual rate.]
• What the work involves: [Two or three plain tasks, such as: call riders to confirm tomorrow’s pickups, update the schedule, file completed trip sheets.]
• Physical and time requirements: [For example: sit or stand as you choose, lift nothing over [number] pounds, no driving, no more than [number] hours a day.]
• Training: [Who will train you, and when.]

[Company name] will only assign tasks that fit your physical abilities, knowledge, and skills, and will provide training if needed.

If your restrictions keep you from driving, call [name] at [phone] and we will help arrange a ride to work.

This job is temporary. It lasts until your doctor releases you to your regular work or [end date], whichever is first, and then you return to [regular job]. If your doctor changes your restrictions, send us the new note right away and we will adjust the assignment.

Please tell us by [reply date] whether you accept, by returning the slip below, by phone, or in person. Questions about how this offer affects your workers’ compensation benefits can go to [adjuster’s name and phone] or to [state workers’ compensation agency and phone].

Sincerely,

[Name, title, phone, email]

Reply slip

• I accept the job above and will start on [date].
• I decline. My reason: ____________________
• I would like to talk first. Please call me at: ______________

Employee signature: __________ Date and time received: __________

What does each state do with the offer?

The offer matters because state workers’ comp rules attach consequences to a refusal, and the rules differ.

• Texas, what the offer must contain. Texas wants the offer on paper, with the doctor’s work status report attached. Five things have to be spelled out: where the employee will work, the schedule, the wages, the physical and time demands of the job, and a promise to assign only tasks that fit the employee’s abilities, knowledge, and skills, with training if needed. The letter above covers all five.
• Texas, what the offer does. An insurer may treat the offer as bona fide if it fits the doctor’s certification, sits at a location the employee can reasonably reach (the rule weighs physical limits, distance, available transportation, and whether the schedule resembles the old one), and carries every required item. The offered wages may then count as post-injury earnings from the earlier of the rejection or the seventh day after receipt, and a mailed offer is deemed received five days after mailing, unless the treating doctor tells the insurer the offer conflicts with the restrictions. The state’s guide says an employee’s refusal of a written bona fide offer may lead to reduced or suspended benefits. Employers with 2 to 50 employees and workers’ comp coverage may also apply on DWC Form-008 for up to $5,000 a year toward workplace changes that let the employee return, such as equipment, tools, or furniture.
• Florida. Section 440.15(6) says an employee who refuses employment suitable to the capacity of the injured worker gets no compensation during the refusal unless a judge finds it justified. The statute names no form, so a dated letter and a signed reply slip are your record.
• California. The state’s offer notices (DWC-AD 10133.35 for injuries on or after January 1, 2013) are not temporary light duty letters. They are the claims administrator’s notice, tied to the supplemental job displacement voucher, and they come into play after a doctor reports permanent partial disability: the employee has 30 calendar days to accept or reject, and the offer must pay at least 85 percent of the pre-injury wage and last at least 12 months to count. For short-term work, use the letter above and ask the claims administrator which paperwork it wants.
• Washington. The Stay at Work wage reimbursement requires the attending provider to approve a written light-duty job description first. The amounts are in the workers’ comp guide.

Can you require an employee to take light duty?

Not in every case, and the rule depends on the law that applies to the employee and the size of the company.

• ADA, 15 or more employees. The ADA does not stop you from creating light duty jobs for work injuries, and does not require you to create one as an accommodation for a driver hurt off the job. If you reserve light duty for work injuries, you must still consider reassigning a disabled employee who was not hurt on the job to a vacant light duty position when no other accommodation works and there is no undue hardship, according to EEOC’s guidance. A company that offers light duty only on a temporary basis may offer only temporary light duty.
• FMLA, 50 or more employees. When a workers’ comp absence also counts as FMLA leave and the doctor clears the employee for light duty, the employee may accept the offer but does not have to. A refusal may end the workers’ comp payments, but the employee stays on unpaid FMLA leave until able to return to the same or an equivalent job or the 12 weeks run out.
• Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, 15 or more employees. Light duty is a recognized accommodation, including through the program you run for work injuries. The law bars requiring a qualified employee to accept light duty without going through the interactive process, even out of concern for the employee’s health. The pregnant drivers guide walks through that conversation.
• Retaliation. Chapter 451 of the Texas Labor Code bars discrimination against an employee for filing a workers’ comp claim, as the state’s return-to-work guide points out. Make the offer on the same terms you would offer anyone hurt on the job.

The leave side of this, including the 50-employee line, is covered in the driver benefits guide.

How light duty shows up on the OSHA log

When you keep OSHA injury records, light duty that stops a driver from doing a routine part of the job is a restricted work case. A routine function is anything the employee regularly does at least once a week, so a driver’s pickups, transfers, and tiedowns count. The day count starts the day after the injury and includes weekends and days off, you stop counting when the employee goes back to full duty, and you may cap it at 180 days. A partial shift also counts, except on the day of the injury. The letter’s start date and end date give you the dates to count. The OSHA guide for NEMT explains who has to keep the log.

Keeping the dates straight in HealthRide

A driver on restrictions still has license and training dates running. HealthRide sends a reminder ahead of each credential’s expiration, and dispatch gets a warning before an expired one reaches a trip assignment, so a driver returning from restrictions does not come back to lapsed paperwork. On the dispatch board, dispatchers choose which trips go to each driver, which makes it simple to hold a driver off wheelchair and stretcher trips until the doctor lifts a limit. Credentials are managed in fleet and credentials.