When Your Employer Cannot Accommodate Your Work Restrictions
If your employer has no work within your medical restrictions, you stay off work and temporary income benefits should pay. Getting from "no light duty" to an actual check takes documentation. This page walks through it.
What "cannot accommodate" means for your checks
After your doctor examines you, the doctor records what work you can and cannot do on a work status report, called DWC073. Those limits are your restrictions. Your employer then has a choice: offer you work that fits within the restrictions, or tell you there is none.
Texas workers' comp law does not require your employer to create a light-duty job for you. Some employers have one; many do not. If there is no work within your restrictions, you have what the law calls disability, the inability to earn your pre-injury wage because of the injury, and the insurance carrier (the company paying benefits on the claim) owes you temporary income benefits (TIBs, the checks that replace part of your lost wages). Disability in Texas Workers' Comp Claims explains that term fully.
The rule is simple. The proof is where workers get stuck.
You must deliver your restrictions to your employer yourself
Workers often assume the adjuster, or their lawyer, will tell the employer about the restrictions. Neither will. The adjuster works for the insurance company and has a financial reason to pay as little as possible. There is no go-between in this system. You hand the restrictions to your employer, and you ask for the answer in writing.
Deliver a copy of the DWC073 in a way you can prove: certified mail with a return receipt, an email, or a text message you screenshot with its date showing. Then ask the direct question: can you give me work within these restrictions, yes or no, in writing.
What happens if there's no light duty available?
You remain off work, and the carrier should pay TIBs for the wages you are losing. Get your employer's "we have no work for you" in writing and send it to the adjuster, because that document is what turns your time off work into paid disability rather than an unexplained absence. If your employer refuses to answer at all, document your delivery attempts; a record of silence serves the same purpose.
Three steps, in order:
1. Deliver the restrictions to your employer in a form you can prove, and keep the proof. 2. Ask for a written answer: accommodate or not. 3. Send the answer, or the proof of silence, to the adjuster and ask in writing that TIBs begin.
When the employer does not answer
Silence is common, and it has a practical meaning. In one claim our office handled, the employer read the worker's text messages about her restrictions, the read receipts proved it, and never replied. After several documented delivery attempts over a period of days, the attorney notified the adjuster that the employer's non-response would be treated as an inability to accommodate, and demanded that TIBs begin. The silence itself, properly documented, became the trigger for the checks.
Do not wait weeks for an answer that is not coming. A few documented attempts over a few days is enough to put the question to the adjuster.
Every new work status report restarts the accommodation question
Restrictions change as you heal, and every new DWC073 restarts the conversation. An employer who could not accommodate the old restrictions may be able to accommodate the new ones, and an old light-duty offer does not carry over: each new work status report requires a new written offer. If your employer does offer work, that offer has its own formal rules, covered at When Your Employer Offers Light Duty: The Bona Fide Offer (BFOE) and Evaluating a Light-Duty Job Offer.
Remember also that restrictions are not only about lifting. Doctors write restrictions like no sun exposure, no contact with certain chemicals, or no driving. An employer who says "we have light duty" must fit all of them, not just the weight limit.
Other laws and situations that can affect your claim
Workers' comp is not the only law in the room. The Americans with Disabilities Act runs on separate rules; What ADA Accommodations Do and Don't Do Alongside a Comp Claim explains the difference. If your employer responds to your restrictions by ending your employment, read Getting Fired While on Workers' Comp. And if your employer keeps paying your full salary while you are off, Staying on the Payroll While You're Off Work explains what that arrangement does to your claim.
Attorney notes regarding return to work & restrictions
Returning to work after an injury is an important part of many workers’ compensation claims. But decisions about when you return, what work you accept, and whether you can safely perform it can also affect your income benefits. This is an area where a decision made at work today can become part of a workers’ compensation dispute tomorrow.
Be careful when:
- You are asked to work outside your restrictions: Your employer’s expectations and your doctor’s restrictions may not always match.
- You receive a light-duty job offer: Do not ignore it. Whether the offer is valid and whether you can perform the job can affect your benefits.
- You try returning to work but cannot continue: Make sure the reason you stopped working is properly documented.
- You are fired, laid off, or asked to resign: Losing your job does not automatically answer whether you are entitled to workers’ compensation income benefits.
- Your wages decrease after the injury: Returning to work does not always mean your right to income benefits has ended.
At Abbott, Clay & Bedoy, we help injured workers evaluate return-to-work issues, medical restrictions, light-duty offers, and disputes over disability and income benefits.
Do not make an important employment decision without considering what it could do to your workers’ compensation claim. We can help you understand your options before a workplace problem becomes a benefits problem.
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