Human Resource Blog

Light Duty in Alabama

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Is an employer obligated to put an employee on light duty in Alabama, if no appropriate work is available?

No. Some employees think that getting a light duty restriction means doing almost no work and still drawing a paycheck. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Neither Alabama nor federal law speaks to the matter of light duty work. Court cases have resulted in some U.S. Department of Labor regulations that reflect the need for consistency with past practice, fairness, and nondiscrimination.

Beyond that, it is up to the discretion of the employer to develop a light duty policy.

Some firms have policies forbidding light duty. Some allow it, but will modify the practice depending on allowable circumstances.

Companies that forbid light duty usually do so because of concerns that a worker who is injured could become further injured on the job. Injured employees return to work when they are capable of safely performing their full duties. However, in some cases this policy has been tested in court and the court ruled that it was discrimination against a person with a temporary disability. In other cases, the courts allowed the company policy to continue.

Some companies will allow for light duty depending on the nature of the job. For example, a secretarial job is largely desk work. It may lend itself to light duty modifications. On the other hand, a warehouse job that requires a worker to move 50-pound boxes will not be adaptable. The employer would not allow light duty work in that position.

A company with a policy allowing for light duty work may find itself with 4 workers who qualify and only enough work to fill 3 light duty slots. In that case, the fourth employee could not return to work at that time.

In all these instances, employers must treat employees fairly when assigning light duty work or denying it, by acting consistently under similar circumstances.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandates that employees must be treated without discrimination in the workplace based on color, race, religion, national origin and the like. Having one light duty policy for African-Americans and another for Caucasian workers, for example, would violate Title VII.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that the employer provide reasonable accommodation to allow the temporarily or permanently disabled employee to contribute his or her talents. JH