Getting cleared to return to work can bring new concerns after a workplace injury. You may still be treating with your doctor when your employer tells you a job is available, or you may be asked to come back with restrictions that change what you can do during the workday.
Before agreeing to anything, know what your doctor has allowed you to do and whether the job your employer is offering fits those restrictions. Changes to your duties, hours, or wages can also affect what happens with your workers’ compensation claim.
This article explains what injured workers in Wilkes-Barre should know about return-to-work pressure and what to consider before agreeing to go back. You can also learn more about returning to work after a workplace injury and how Pennsylvania workers’ compensation benefits may be affected.
Reviewed by: Timothy P. Belt, Certified Specialist in Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Law.
Attorney Belt is certified as a specialist in Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Law by the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Section on Workers’ Compensation Law as authorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Before You Return to Work After an Injury
You may get a call from your employer saying there is work for you even though you’re still treating for the injury. Maybe your doctor has placed limits on what you can lift or how long you can stand, or you’re simply not back to doing everything you could before you were hurt.
Returning under those circumstances can raise practical concerns. The position may look different from your regular job, and you may not know exactly what the day will involve until you’re there.
“Light duty” doesn’t tell you much about what the work will be like. One employer may use the term for a desk assignment, while another may expect you to spend much of the day standing, walking, reaching, or moving around the workplace.
Your doctor’s restrictions give you something more specific to work from. A lifting limit or instructions to avoid prolonged standing, bending, or repetitive movement can tell you far more than the words “light duty.”
A return-to-work offer may not tell you much about what your shift will look like. You could arrive expecting lighter work and find that some of your usual tasks are still part of the job.
That is worth sorting out beforehand. Ask what you will be doing, not just what the position is called. If the answer includes work your doctor told you to avoid, you know there is an issue to address before you go back.
If you’re still early in the claim, knowing what to do after a work injury in Wilkes-Barre can help you address reporting, medical care, and other issues that may matter later in the claim.
The first few days may go exactly as planned. As time passes, you may find yourself doing more of your old work again. It might happen here and there at first, especially when the workplace is busy or someone needs a hand.
If that starts becoming part of your regular day, look back at the restrictions you returned with. What you’re doing now may be different from the assignment you initially accepted.
Light duty can affect more than the physical work you perform. Your schedule, pay, responsibilities, and even where you spend the day may differ from what you did before the injury.
If your employer gives you a written description of the position, don’t assume everything in it lines up with what your doctor said. Read it with your own limitations in mind. Something in the day-to-day duties may not have been obvious when the return was first discussed.
You can take that paperwork with you to your next medical appointment. Your doctor will then have the same description you were given when deciding whether the position works with your current limitations.
Weight limits are only one part of what can make a job difficult after an injury. You may stay under a lifting limit and still struggle to get through the day because of how the work is set up.
Sitting too long may bother your back. Your shoulder may start hurting after doing the same motion for a while. A knee injury could make stairs difficult. These are the kinds of problems that a simple lifting restriction may not tell the whole story about.
You were working 40 hours a week before you got hurt. Now you’re back for four-hour shifts, three days a week. Even though you’re working again, that’s a very different week from the one you had before the injury.
Working again can change the benefits you receive without ending every part of the claim. Your earnings and ongoing medical needs can become especially important at this stage.
You could go back to work and still see a noticeable drop in your paycheck. If you earned $1,000 a week before the injury and now make $700 on modified duty, you’re earning $300 less each week.
That difference matters in a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation claim. If the loss of earnings is due to the work injury, the injured worker may be entitled to payment of wage loss benefits to make up the difference.
Resuming your job doesn’t end medical coverage for the work injury. You could be working again while still going to appointments, attending physical therapy, or receiving other care for the injury.
These two things can happen at the same time. Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act requires employers to pay for reasonable and necessary medical services related to a compensable work injury.
Working your regular schedule again does not necessarily resolve the entire claim. You may no longer be losing wages, but the work injury can still be open for payment of medical bills.
If you’re earning what you made before the injury, your wage-loss benefits may be suspended. That is different from a termination of benefits based on a full recovery from the work injury. The difference is that a suspension means that the wage loss benefits have stopped but the medical benefits remain open, but a termination means that both wage loss and medical benefits have ended.
You might return expecting one kind of assignment and discover something different once you’re back. A few days later, you could be doing more than you were when you first walked through the door.
You make it through Monday without much trouble. By Wednesday, the same work is getting harder to finish.
A medical appointment after you’ve gone back to work is a chance to talk about how things have been going on the job. If your knee starts hurting two hours into a shift, tell your doctor when it starts and what you are doing at the time.
You went back with a 20-pound lifting limit. A few days later, you’re moving boxes that weigh twice that much. Then you’re asked to do it again on the next shift.
Write down the date and what you were doing. If questions come up later about what you were asked to do, you’ll have your own record of those days.
Getting through a shift doesn’t prove that everything is fine. Pain may linger longer than it did before, or something that was improving may start going in the other direction.
A rough day here and there is one thing. A pattern is different. If each week back is leaving you worse than the week before, bring that up during your medical care.
A letter called a Notice of Ability to Return to Work (LIBC-757) may show up while you’re still receiving workers’ compensation benefits. It is used when the insurance carrier receives medical evidence indicating your physical condition has changed. Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act requires the carrier to notify the worker in writing when it receives that type of medical evidence.
The notice can be important even if you haven’t gone back yet. It tells you what the carrier has received about your physical condition and warns that evidence of available employment could affect ongoing benefits. It also advises you of your right to consult an attorney and obtain evidence to challenge the carrier’s position. Under Pennsylvania’s workers’ compensation regulations, the notice must be provided before or at the same time as a job offer.
The notice does not mean that you have fully recovered or that you can necessarily perform the same job you had before the injury. Pennsylvania law refers to an ability to work “in any capacity.”
The form also puts several issues in writing: your current physical condition or a change in that condition, your obligation to look for available employment, the possible effect of available work on ongoing benefits, and your right to speak with an attorney about challenging the carrier’s position.
Being capable of some work is different from being able to perform a particular position. The medical information may show that you can work in some capacity without answering whether you can handle the job your employer has available.
A warehouse job, for example, can look very different from office work even when both are described as modified duty. What you’re physically able to do still has to be considered against the work that’s available.
Getting a call about coming back is one thing. Problems can start when the work available doesn’t fit your limitations, your paycheck changes, or the arrangement you came back under starts to fall apart.
At that point, the issue can reach beyond an uncomfortable conversation with your employer. What happens on the job may affect your wages, medical care, or workers’ compensation benefits.
Your doctor has cleared you to work with limitations, but your employer tells you there isn’t a job available that fits them. That leaves you in a different situation from someone who has been released to go back to their regular job.
If no suitable work is available, don’t assume that means you should take on duties outside those limits just to get back on the schedule. What happens with your wage-loss benefits can depend on the circumstances.
You came back doing one set of tasks, but little by little, pieces of your old job start showing up again. By the end of the week, your day may look nothing like it did when you first came back.
Once the assignment starts expanding, compare what you’re doing with the limits you were given. Those restrictions don’t disappear because the workplace is busy or your employer needs help elsewhere.
You were working five full shifts before you got hurt. After coming back, you’re scheduled for three. Even at the same hourly rate, the amount on your paycheck will change.
That loss in earnings can matter under Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law. Being back at work does not necessarily mean wage-loss benefits disappear when you’re earning less because of the injury.
A change in your work status can lead the insurance carrier to take a new position on your benefits. You could receive paperwork seeking to reduce, suspend, or stop wage-loss payments after you’ve gone back.
Don’t assume the paperwork is routine. Read what was sent to you and look at the reason the carrier gives for changing your benefits.
The answers below address common questions Wilkes-Barre workers may have when returning to a job while a workers’ compensation claim is still active.
Generally, no. If your doctor has not cleared you to work, your employer asking you to come back does not change your medical status. An employer’s request is not the same as a medical release.
A disagreement over whether you’re able to work can become part of the workers’ compensation case, especially if the employer or insurance carrier takes a different position from your doctor.
Not necessarily. Whether you must accept a light-duty position depends on the job being offered and whether you are medically able to perform it. A job that falls outside your restrictions can raise a different issue than one your doctor says you can do.
Turning down work can affect workers’ compensation benefits in some circumstances, so the details of the offer matter.
Yes, potentially. Returning to work does not always end wage-loss benefits. If the work injury causes you to earn less than you did before you were hurt, you may qualify for partial disability wage loss benefits.
The amount depends on the difference between your pre-injury wages and what you are able to earn after the injury.
Yes, it can. Returning to work does not automatically end coverage for reasonable and necessary medical treatment related to an accepted work injury, even when wage-loss benefits are no longer being paid.
Yes, in some circumstances. Returning to work can affect wage-loss benefits, but simply showing up for work does not automatically end every part of your workers’ compensation claim.
What happens to your benefits can depend on your earnings, work status, and the action taken by the insurance carrier.
You don’t have to wait until your benefits are stopped. Consider speaking with a lawyer if the job being offered doesn’t fit your medical limitations, your wages have dropped, or the insurance carrier is taking action that could affect your benefits.
The Wilkes-Barre workers’ compensation lawyers at Belt Law can review the situation and explain how returning to work may affect your claim.
If you’re being asked to come back before you feel ready, or the work you’re given doesn’t match your medical limitations, you may need to know where you stand before making your next move.
Belt Law can review your situation and explain your options under Pennsylvania law.
Why Injured Workers Choose Belt Law
Contact The Belt Law Firm, P.C. today at (570) 714-3343 to schedule your free consultation.
Report the injury to your employer as soon as possible and obtain any necessary medical treatment.
If the injury is not reported within 120 days, you will lose the right to file for compensation. You cannot legally be fired for reporting a work injury.
The employer reports your injury to their workers’ compensation insurer. If the insurance carrier accepts your claim, they will calculate any compensation owed and make payment. If your claim has not been accepted within 21 days of providing notice of the injury to your employer, your claim is likely denied.
If you receive a notice of denial, you can file a Claim Petition with the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Bureau. Your Petition will be assigned to a Workers’ Compensation Judge. The Judge will schedule hearings, and both sides will be provided the opportunity to present evidence. If the claim is not voluntarily resolved, the judge will issue a Decision.
In most cases you have up to three years from the date of injury to file a Claim Petition.
Workers’ compensation insurance covers all medical expenses stemming from your work injury. Workers’ comp pays wage loss benefits until you are able to go back to work. If you suffer an amputation or disfigurement to your face or neck, you may be entitled to additional disability benefits (even if you are still able to work).
Taking a lump-sum settlement may or may not make sense for your situation. You should get legal counsel before agreeing to a settlement.
There is no upfront or out-of-pocket cost to you. We provide a free initial consultation. You do not pay any legal fees unless and until we recover benefits for you.
Do you have a work-related injury? Please give us a call in Kingston at 570-714-3343, in Hazleton at 570-535-3343 or contact us online. Belt Law Firm, P.C., serves injured workers in Luzerne County and the surrounding communities of northeast Pennsylvania.
Many aspects of a successful workers’ compensation claim or unemployment compensation benefits case are complex.
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