If an employee requires a transfer to a light duty position, New Hampshire employers are not legally required to provide a job if a light duty position isn’t available. There is no New Hampshire or federal law pertaining to light duty, but several cases have been tried in the courts.

To address the issue, the U. S. Department of Labor enacted several regulations for light duty work.

First, no matter what protocol is used, the employer must apply the same protocol to all employees in an even and fair manner. If an employer granted a light duty position to employees in the past, it must continue to do so.

The employer isn’t obligated, however, to create a light duty position for an employee. If a light duty position isn’t available, the company can refuse to allow the employee back to work until he or she is able to perform their job.

Unfortunately, employees often consider light duty a synonym for getting paid for doing little or no work. This is simply not the case. No employer is obligated to provide 40 hours of light duty work if a light duty position is not available.

The transition to light duty work depends heavily on the type of job. For instance an administrative assistant who performs her job at a desk all day may easily work it as a light duty position. A worker in a warehouse who lifts and moves packages weighing 50 pounds or more may not be able to do his or her job when on light duty restriction. If a light duty position isn’t available, the warehouse worker will not be able to return to work until he or she can perform the usual functions of the job.

The exception to the rule refers to disabled employees. According to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for persons with a disability. Failure to do so is considered discrimination and violates both the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 6:02 am and is filed under Accidents & Injury Laws, Auto Accident Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.